Hawaii's red flag law used 13 times in six years; lawmakers push awareness funding

Hawaii’s gun violence protective order law has been used only 13 times since taking effect in 2020, even as more than 430 people were killed by firearms in the state between 2018 and 2024, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Honolulu Police Department has never filed a red flag petition, and a state House bill would direct roughly $500,000 over two years to public awareness campaigns and court-processing support for the orders.

Hawaii lawmakers are confronting a persistent gap between a legal tool’s existence and its use. Suicides account for the majority of firearm deaths in the state — 31 people died by gun suicide in 2024, a decrease from the 2023 peak of 50, according to the CDC — and gun violence prevention experts say the protective order’s potential role in preventing those deaths remains largely unrealized because too few residents, and too few police officers, know how to use it.

The law and its limits

Under Hawaiʻi’s law, anyone with a close connection to a gun owner in crisis — family members, roommates, coworkers, medical professionals — can petition a court to temporarily remove the person’s firearms for a year and bar them from purchasing a new weapon. Unlike a temporary restraining order or domestic violence protection order, the petition can be filed before someone has acted on a threat to harm themselves or others.

Police in Honolulu and Kauaʻi counties have never filed such a petition, according to court records. Only six petitions have been filed by law enforcement statewide — five by police on Hawaiʻi Island and one on Maui.

Maj. Carlene Lau, who oversees the Honolulu Police Department’s records and identification division, told Civil Beat last year that not all HPD staff receive training on the orders and that information about how to file them can be hard to find, even for police.

Tim Huyke, a retired law enforcement officer who testified in support of the House proposal, said the low use rate surprised him.

“What do you mean you’re not aware of it?” Huyke said. “It’s the law.”

Huyke, who served on the police force at Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi in Kaneohe and has decades of experience in civilian and military police departments, said a protective order can serve as “a cooling off period.”

“I prefer to err on the side of caution,” he said.

Proposed legislation

House Bill 2062 would direct funding to the state’s Department of Law Enforcement for public awareness campaigns and to the Judiciary to process orders more efficiently. The Department of Law Enforcement has requested $500,000 spread across two years, with roughly $100,000 earmarked for public awareness in year one and $150,000 for gun buybacks, according to Ernie Robello, the department’s deputy director of administration.

“We want to educate the public, educate the law enforcement personnel, and then also remove some of these firearms that are unwanted or unneeded, to take them out of the hands of these people that might have access to it because they weren’t removed from the community,” Robello said.

Plans for the campaigns remain preliminary, but Robello said they could include town halls with community groups serving vulnerable populations, public service announcements on social media and television, and meetings with county police departments.

A second proposal before lawmakers, Senate Bill 3040, would create a statewide Office of Gun Violence Prevention, replacing the Gun Violence and Violent Crimes Commission, which has not met in over a year.

Experts call for a broader approach

Gun violence prevention advocates said public awareness is necessary but not sufficient. Kelly Drane, who leads research at the Giffords Law Center, said outreach needs to explain not just that protective orders exist but how to use them, and should address concerns that family members may have about filing against a loved one.

“We need lots of tools in our toolbox. This is a tool. It’s not the only one,” Drane said. “If people aren’t using the tools in their toolbox, then we’ve got a problem.”

Drane said the orders are more likely to be granted when filed by police, and that some jurisdictions — including Broward County, Florida and King County, Washington — have dedicated task forces to evaluate whether a specific situation warrants a petition. She said outreach should also target mental health professionals already working with people in crisis.

“This is a group of people that should be presenting a menu of options to people that call and are concerned, and this is on the menu,” Drane said.

Jeanelle Sugimoto-Matsuda, a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa and co-chair of the Prevent Suicide Hawaiʻi Task Force, said temporarily removing firearms addresses an immediate danger but not the root causes of suicide risk.

“This is a great immediate emergency step,” Sugimoto-Matsuda said. “But from a public health standpoint, is that all we’re going to do for that person or the family who’s being impacted?”

Sugimoto-Matsuda said a gun violence protective order should ideally accompany coordinated access to therapy or crisis intervention, and called for greater public awareness of early warning indicators and resources including the 988 mental health crisis line.

“It’s one piece of a more comprehensive approach to keeping that person safe,” she said.