The U.S. Supreme Court last week eviscerated Hawaii’s so-called “vampire rule” that required private property owners to grant permission to lawful gun owners before they were allowed on the premises.
Amid the ruling’s fallout was disbelief at the lengths Hawaii’s legal team went to find anything to justify the island state’s gun control regime. Lawyers trotted out a Reconstruction Era Black Code enacted specifically to deny newly freed slaves constitutional liberties following the Civil War.
Victorious attorney Kevin O’Grady told Fox News Digital that propping up gun restrictions with laws specifically designed to deny fundamental freedoms was a bad look.
State attorneys embarrassed themselves before the high court
“It is disgraceful that any state would rely on a law specifically aimed at taking away the Second Amendment rights or any constitutional right of Black Americans as it was at the time,” O’Grady declared.
He added that the plaintiffs believed the Supreme Court would never accept arguments based on vestiges of slavery. O’Grady called the statute “the kind of law that one absolutely should not look to determine whether or not something is constitutional.”
2A advocates will closely watch Hawaii’s reaction to last week’s defeat
Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority in the 6-3 victory for gun rights. He correctly blasted the 19th-century law as a “tainted artifact” and one that “cannot be taken seriously” by the high court.
Hawaii’s draconian restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms resulted in only four concealed carry permits being issued from 2000 to 2018. Anti-gunners should have known that the handwriting was on the wall after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, but their response was telling.
Instead of obeying the law of the land, political leaders wailed about the “Spirit of Aloha” and doubled down on suppressing gun rights.
Their efforts to use Black Codes and 18th-century poaching regulations did not sway the majority. Hawaii dramatically failed to meet the “history and tradition” test established by Bruen, and the law went down in flames.
Don’t be surprised if authorities in the island state dig in and try more legal chicanery to suppress the Second Amendment—even after the Supreme Court’s emphatic rejection of their position on gun rights. If so, they’ll need to avoid relying on racist and disgraceful 19th-century laws.
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