Following the atrocity in Las Vegas, many lawmakers throughout the nation have been preoccupied with banning not just bump stocks, but anything which may allow for a higher rate of fire. One of the latest is the state of Hawaii, which will be holding a hearing on their bill today.

On Tuesday, February 13 2018, the House Committee on Judiciary has scheduled to hear House Bill 1908, legislation prohibiting certain trigger modifications. Contact members of the Committee and urge their opposition to HB 1908 by clicking on the take action button below.

Also, please consider submitting testimony to the committee through the Hawaii Legislature website. In order to submit testimony, you will need to create an account. For help creating an account and submitting testimony, click here.

House Bill 1908, introduced by Representative Gregg Takayama (D-34), would make it a felony for any person who “manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the State, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses” certain trigger modifications. The broad language of this bill could encompass many common modifications done by law-abiding gun owners to make their firearms more suitable for self-defense, competition, hunting, or even overcoming disability.

The problem with this bill is that there are plenty of ways to increase one’s rate of fire without modifying the trigger at all. Bump fire can be accomplished with things as innocuous as rubber bands or belt loops. All a bill like this will really do is negatively impact things like competition triggers.

People who want to bump fire will continue to — legally, even.

Unfortunately, laws are often crafted by people who know nothing about guns. They step up, pontificate endlessly about the need for new regulations, and yet never seem to grasp even basic facts about the things they’re trying to regulate. In this case, they don’t understand that bump fire doesn’t require special modifications to be accomplished. Had bump stocks not been available to the Las Vegas shooter, he’d have simply replicated that rate of fire through other means.

Instead, they’ll push for these laws because it’ll make them look good back home, and that’s all politics is really about. It’s not about trying to do good for your constituents, it’s about looking good for your constituents.

In this case, I suspect some of the lawmakers who are supporting this bill know it won’t really do anything. They know that it won’t stop criminally minded people from doing horrible things. They know it’ll only impact the law-abiding gun owners who aren’t a threat to anyone or anything. They know it. They just don’t care.

Instead, they want to battle against the proverbial windmills because that’s what their voters want to see. They’re cowards who won’t look back home and say, “This law won’t accomplish anything, so I’m not going to vote for it.”

Of course, there are also the delusional who really do think it’ll help, all evidence to the contrary aside. I’m not really sure which are more prevalent. Then again, does it really matter?