Hawaii prohibits persons from storing firearms on property they control when they know or reasonably should know that a minor (a person under the age of 18) is likely to gain access to the firearm without the permission of the parent or guardian of the minor, unless:

• The firearm is kept in a securely locked box or container or in a location that a reasonable person would believe to be secure; or
• The firearm is carried on the person or within such close proximity thereto that the person readily can retrieve and use it as if it were carried on the person.¹

Under state law, a person commits the offense of “criminally negligent storage of a firearm” when a minor obtains a firearm as a result of the person’s violation of state law.² Criminally negligent storage of a firearm is a misdemeanor.³ If the minor obtains the firearm as a result of unlawful entry to any premises by any person, the owner of the firearm is not criminally liable.⁴

Hawaii has no law that requires unattended firearms to be stored in a certain way.

Hawaii does not require a locking device to accompany the sale of a firearm, although federal law applies, and no state statutes require firearm owners to affirmatively lock their weapons.

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1. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-10.5. Previously, this provision defined a “minor” as a person under the age of 16; in 2021, Hawaii enacted a law raising the age to 18. Haw. H. 31 (2021).[↩]
2. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 707-714.5; see also, Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-10.5.[↩]
3. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 707-714.5(3).[↩]
4. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 707-714.5(2).[↩]