Rifle magazine limit on MPPL club matches

[hishoot]

Recently, received my Mid Pacific Pistol League newsletter. In it, an insert explaining recent events where a deputy sheriff contacted the AG's office for a legal opinion re: high capacity AR-15 magazines in Hawaii. AG's opinion is that AR-15 magazines that hold more than 10 are illegal.

If anyone can find the opinion in writing, please post it.

As of now, no standard capacity AR/AK/Mini-14/Sten magazines allowed in club matches.

MPPL Newletter insert explaining new 10 round limit on rifle magazines during club matches (http://www.hawaiishooters.com/forums/10roundlimit.pdf)(PDF, 71kb)

[cw2]

This is an EXTREMELY SERIOUS DEVELOPMENT.
You need to look at both sections of law -- the definition of "Pistol" (3rd from bottom), and then the magazine ban language. This makes most all magazines over 10 rounds illegal, and not just for ARs. However, this POS forum software has trashed my detailed analysis 3 times now, complete with quoted text and URL links, and I do not have the patience to write it up a third time, since it wants to trash everything I write and ask me to log on again and again. PLEASE LOOK CAREFULLY AT BOTH SECTIONS OF LAW. Now combine the definition of "Pistol" (3rd from bottom) AT http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol03_Ch0121-0200D/HRS0134/HRS_0134-0001.htm. Now consider HRS 134-8(c) for the mag ban The manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of detachable ammunition magazines with a capacity in excess of ten rounds which are designed for or capable of use with a pistol is prohibited. [URL]http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol03_Ch0121-0200D/hrs0134/HRS_0134-0008.htm[URL]

So they pulled a fast one, and they hid it where it would not be obvious. This is VERY threatening and MUST BE CHANGED. We need to contact the legislators on our side and make our case. We should ask Sam Slom and our other friends in the legislature to clear up any potential ambiguity to avoid wasting taxpayer money by going on safari against law-abiding citizens. It also presents a good opportunity to ask them to clean up Hawaii law by bringing it into conformance with federal law, and eliminating any laws regulating any standard capacity magazines in common use. Given that this is an election cycle where legislators are antsy about loosing their seats, I think we have the wind at our back on this one, and the same legislators who acted logically in our behalf
-- cw

Please note that the only way I could post to this board was to write in a WP program and copy it over. This software is a total POS. Please get some software that works, this dumped all my work about 5 times now and seems totally unusable, so I will not be posting here again. It logs you off within a few minutes and looses all your work and asks you to log in again (and again, and again....). Had this not been a critical issue, I would not have kept trying. Unfortunatley, it is under a thread that only applies to MPPL matches, so you need to find a way to put it where it will be read.

[Rhys]

The current law is what it is. We may not like what it states, but knowingly deciding to avoid the clear language is dangerous. If you think for one minute that any law enforcement officer or prosecutor that is tasked with enforcing the 10 round limit is going to turn away and ignore a clear violation you need to get your head out of the sand and take a look at where we live. A clear reading of the law is what will be applied regardless of how one may think it should be applied. The fact that the web sites of both the HRA and HPD identify the limitation does not help anyone’s defense on this issue. For the MPPL to turn their head and ignore it would do injustice to its members and participants and be worse than irresponsible. While I personally believe the limitation is just plain stupid, the prudent course of action was taken by the MPPL until such time that the circumstances can be changed. Would you rather be able to compete with more than 10 rounds in your magazine and risk mandatory prison time, or enjoy the sport? Your call.