The Honolulu Police Department isn’t one of those law enforcement agencies you really should think of as being either pro-gun or neutral on the subject of firearms. It’s an especially anti-gun police department that seems to trip all over itself to be as anti-gun as possible. I’ve written about them before. They’ve also made some questionable financial decisions because of that anti-gun bias.

This is not the department to defend your Second Amendment rights.

While there are undoubtedly some officers who are pro-gun, they work for an agency that’s not. In fact, they work for an agency that’s now calling for still more gun control.

Honolulu police say there has been a 20% increase in gun violence so far this year. The department has even ramped up patrol in response to all the shootings.

They also created a special team to track something that’s new to the islands: Ghost guns.

Ghost guns have no serial numbers so they’re impossible to track and you don’t need a background check to get one. And right now, they’re completely legal in Hawaii.

“We have noticed crimes involving the ghost guns,” Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard said.

So where are people getting them? Lots of times, online.

Tom Tomimbang, managing partner at 808 Gun Club, said ghost guns ― from pistols to AR15s to AK47s ― can be easily ordered and shipped to just about anyplace.

They’re legal because what you’re getting is not a complete firearm, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Instead, they’re 80% complete.

“You would need tools, you would need some knowhow to know how to do this,” Tomimbang said.

State law requires people who complete these guns to register them with the state. However, it’s based on an honor system, which means the only people doing it are law-abiding people.

However, the drive behind this is idiotic.

First, the most a statewide ban on so-called “ghost guns” would do is make it so enthusiasts can’t legally build their own firearms. It won’t stop criminals from obtaining the necessary parts. In particular, the lower receiver is the only part that constitutes a firearm on an AR-15, so at worst what we’d see is Hawaiian criminals having friends ship them less than 80 percent lowers from the mainland. Oh, it may be illegal, but then again, so is some of the other crap these people are doing.

What Honolulu Police Department officials need to understand is that it won’t actually stop people from building guns. When you can build an AK-47 from a shovel, it’s safe to say that you can probably build a gun without a kit.

It should be noted, though, that the H

PD’s efforts aren’t going unchallenged.

The Hawaii Firearms Coalition posted this in response to the HPD’s call.

Frankly, that about sums it up, in my opinion.

Look, I get the desire to do something to keep criminals from getting guns, but as the Hawaii Firearms Coalition notes, most guns being used are stolen in the first place. While HPD may be seeing more and more of these “ghost guns” used in crimes, the truth is that they’re far more likely to see stolen firearms.

Since stealing guns is already illegal, I somehow doubt another law is going to change much of anything.