The state of Hawaii may need to rethinking its name. 

After all, "state of Denial" seems to be far more fitting. After all, this is a state whose supreme court decided that decisions by the US Supreme Court doesn't actually apply to it because of "The Aloha Spirit" or some such crap. We've also seen numourous other terrible takes by officials.

Yet in the post Bruen world, we know that there is a right to carry a firearm outside of your home. It seems that even Hawaii hasn't quite need fit to completely ignore that, at least not just yet.

But some in the state are accusing the Honolulu Police Department of continuing to slow-walking concealed carry permits.

Another lawsuit has been filed in the battle over gun control in Hawaii.

This time, the federal complaint is on behalf of gun owners who say the Honolulu Police Department is intentionally and unconstitutionally dragging its feet in issuing permits to carry concealed handguns.

It’s one of several fronts in the gun debate in a state with historically tough firearms control and among the lowest number of firearms deaths in the country.

The lawsuit names three owners, one of whom applied for his concealed carry permit six months ago.

The other two filed last March, nearly a year ago. They say they still haven’t heard a word back from HPD, according to attorney Kevin O’Grady.

“They’ve just received silence is basically what is alleged in our complaint,” he said.

The lawsuit says the law requires HPD to issue concealed carry permits in a reasonable time.

Gun owners have already complained about required consumer training and intrusive questions in the Hawaii process, and now the delays.

“If you want to go exercise your right, and you have to wait 30, 60, 90, 120, 365 days in order to get some government bureaucrats permission to exercise your right, that’s unconstitutional,” O’Grady said.

So what we have is either exactly what the lawsuit alleges--that a police department long known to be hostile to the right to keep and bear arms is taking its sweet time in processing applications--or else the Honolulu Police Department is just so incompetent that they can't figure out how to do their job in this instance.

Now, as a general rule, I try to not ascribe anything to malice that can easily be the result of incompetence, but this stretches that way too far.

Six months for a permit might be incompetence. A year, without good reason, is someone deliberately trying to keep people from carrying a firearm lawfully without outright denying them.

Regardless, it clear that it'll take a lawsuit to settle this.

And note that this is a federal lawsuit, meaning it will bypass the Hawaiian system that thinks "The Aloha Spirit" trumps the United States Constitution. That means there's a very good chance we'll see the Honolulu PD with their butts in a vise over this one, as well it should.

It's bad enough people have to get a permit to exercise a constitutionally protected right, but it's far worse when the issuing authority trips over themselves to find ways to keep people from carrying lawfully.

Meanwhile, Hawaii's criminals aren't exactly worrying about carry permits.