STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2363

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2720

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2720 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FIREARMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish a Hawaii Firearm Injury Restitution Fund funded by licensed firearm manufacturers as a condition of market participation; and

(2) Provide no-fault, first-payer coverage for medical and related costs arising from firearm injuries.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from seven individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Rifle Association, Mid Pacific Pistol League, For Liberty and Justice Hawaii, and ninety-five individuals.

Your Committee finds that firearms incur significant costs on the State, including for emergency medical and trauma care, rehabilitation, mental health treatment, and lost productivity. Currently, taxpayers are disproportionately responsible for paying these costs. This measure will ensure a more equitable distribution of costs by establishing new economic regulations to shift responsibility from taxpayers to gun manufacturers and distributers.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Amending the definition of "firearm injury" to mean any bodily injury or death caused by the accidental or otherwise unintended discharge of a firearm, or by the unjustified, intentional discharge of a firearm by one person against another;

(2) Requiring the Department of Health to establish the Hawaii Firearm Injury Restitution Fund (Fund) on January 1, 2027;

(3) Excluding other costs determined by rule from the Hawaii Firearm Inquiry Restitution Fund's eligible expenses resulting from a firearm injury;

(4) Inserting language authorizing an individual who suffers a firearm injury, or the individual's personal representative, to make a claim for payment from the Fund;

(5) Specifying that the prohibition on the sale or distribution of firearms without a valid firearm injury cost recovery license will begin on January 1, 2027;

(6) Deleting language that would have specified that the issuance of a firearm injury cost recovery license constitutes economic regulation of market participation;

(7) Requiring the Department of Health to periodically update firearm risk categories;

(8) Deleting language that would have required contributions to the Fund to be calculated prospectively;

(9) Deleting language requiring benefits paid from the fund to be coordinated with other public and private benefits;

(10) Specifying that compensation from the Fund may limit eligibility for compensation under laws other than Chapter 356, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(11) Specifying that the Department of Health is required to deny, suspend, or revoke a firearm injury recovery license for noncompliance beginning January 1, 2027;

(12) Deleting language allowing penalties authorized by administrative rule;

(13) Requiring the Department of Health to adopt rules to implement the Fund, including rules governing the process by which claims may be made for payments from the Fund and by which claims may be coordinated with other public and private sources;

(14) Requiring the Department of Health to adopt an administrative review process by which firearm manufacturers may contest category classifications mathematical calculation of contributions, or compliance determinations;

(15) Clarifying legislative findings and amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

(16) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2720, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2720, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs,

________________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair