HONOLULU — A federal appeals court has upheld the Honolulu Police Department’s refusal to let a man who had been convicted of misdemeanor harassment own firearms.
HONOLULU — A federal appeals court has upheld the Honolulu Police Department’s refusal to let a man who had been convicted of misdemeanor harassment own firearms.
Of the three judges on the panel Friday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one criticized state law for imposing a lifetime ban on the right to bear arms for committing a misdemeanor, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Kirk Fisher had been attempting to again possess a firearm after surrendering his because of a 1997 arrest for harassing his wife and daughter.
Hawaii law prohibits anybody convicted of a crime of violence, or misdemeanor domestic violence, from ever again owning a firearm.
Fisher pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment and had been sentenced to six months of probation. He had been given his firearms back after serving his sentence. But when he tried to possess another gun in 2009, the police department refused and made him get rid of the guns that were given back to him.
Fisher filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2011 against the department and the city. In 2014, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the city, so Fisher appealed.
All three appeals court judges ruled against Fisher, but judge Alex Kozinski criticized state law. He wrote that while federal law affords people four different ways of getting back their right to keep and bear arms, Hawaii law affords them only a pardon.
Fisher’s attorney Donald Wilkerson is encouraged by the criticism and will continue to pursue the case, he said.
“We’re not going to give up on this,” he said.