Is a BB Gun a Firearm or a Weapon?
Full Question:
Answer:
BBguns, especially pistol bb guns, are often clumped in together with brass knuckes, switchblades, cane swords, nunchucks, throwing starts, tazers, and other non-firearms as generic weapons that are outlawed.
Please see the following HI statutes to determine applicability:
§ 134-1. Definitions.
As used in this chapter, unless the context indicates
otherwise:
"Acquire" means gain ownership of.
"Antique pistol or revolver" means any pistol or revolver
manufactured before 1899 and any replica thereof if it
either is not designed or redesigned for using rimfire or
conventional centerfire fixed ammunition or is designed or
redesigned to use rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed
ammunition that is no longer manufactured in the United
States and is not readily available in the ordinary channels
of commercial trade.
"Assault pistol" means a semiautomatic pistol which accepts
a detachable magazine and which has two or more of the
following characteristics:
(1) An ammunition magazine which attaches to the pistol
outside of the pistol grip;
(2) A threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel
extender, flash suppressor, forward hand grip, or silencer;
(3) A shroud which is attached to or partially or completely
encircles the barrel and which permits the shooter to hold
the firearm with the second hand without being burned;
(4) A manufactured weight of fifty ounces or more when the
pistol is unloaded;
(5) A centerfire pistol with an overall length of twelve
inches or more; or
(6) It is a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm;
but does not include a firearm with a barrel sixteen or more
inches in length, an antique pistol as defined in this
section or a curio or relic as those terms are used in
18 United States Code § 921(16) or
27 Code of Federal Regulations 178.11.
"Automatic firearm" means any firearm that shoots, is
designed to shoot, or can be readily modified to shoot
automatically more than one shot, without a manual reloading,
by a single function of the trigger. This term shall also
include the frame or receiver of any such firearm, any
part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or any
combination of parts designed and intended, for use in
converting a firearm into an automatic firearm, and any
combination of parts from which an automatic firearm can be
assembled if the parts are in the possession or under the
control of a single person.
"Chief of police" means the chief of police of the counties
of Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, or the city and county of Honolulu.
"Crime of violence" means any offense, as defined in
title 37, that involves injury or threat of injury to the
person of another.
"Electric gun" means any portable device that is
electrically operated to project a missile or electromotive
force. It does not include any electric livestock prod used
in animal husbandry and any automatic external defibrillator
used in emergency medical situations.
"Firearm" means any weapon, for which the operating force is
an explosive, including but not limited to pistols,
revolvers, rifles, shotguns, automatic firearms, noxious gas
projectors, mortars, bombs, and cannon.
"Firearm loaded with ammunition" and "loaded firearm" means
a firearm with ammunition present within the firing chamber,
revolving cylinder, or within a magazine which is inserted
in a firearm.
"Fugitive from justice" means any person (1) who has fled
from any state, territory, the District of Columbia, or
possession of the United States, to avoid prosecution for a
felony or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal
proceeding or (2) who has fled from any country other than
the United States and is avoiding lawful extradition back to
that country.
"Pistol" or "revolver" means any firearm of any shape with a
barrel less than sixteen inches in length and capable of
discharging loaded ammunition or any noxious gas.
"Public highway" shall have the same meaning as defined in
section 264-1(a).
"Semiautomatic" means the mode of operation by which a
firearm uses the energy of the explosive in a fixed
cartridge to extract a fired cartridge and chamber a fresh
cartridge with each single pull of a trigger.
§ 134-51. Deadly weapons; prohibitions; penalty.
(a) Any person, not authorized by law, who carries
concealed upon the person's self or within any vehicle used
or occupied by the person or who is found armed with any
dirk, dagger, blackjack, slug shot, billy, metal knuckles,
pistol, or other deadly or dangerous weapon shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor and may be immediately arrested without
warrant by any sheriff, police officer, or other officer or
person. Any weapon, above enumerated, upon conviction of the
one carrying or possessing it under this section, shall be
summarily destroyed by the chief of police or sheriff.
(b) Whoever knowingly possesses or intentionally uses or threatens to
use a deadly or dangerous weapon while engaged in the commission of a
crime shall be guilty of a class C felony.
§ 706-660. Sentence of imprisonment for class B and C felonies; ordinary
terms.
A person who has been convicted of a class B or class C felony may be
sentenced to an indeterminate term of imprisonment except as provided for
in section 706-660.1 relating to the use of firearms in certain felony
offenses and section 706-606.5 relating to repeat offenders. When
ordering such a sentence, the court shall impose the maximum length of
imprisonment which shall be as follows:
(1) For a class B felony — 10 years; and
(2) For a class C felony — 5 years.
The minimum length of imprisonment shall be determined by the Hawaii
paroling authority in accordance with section 706-669.
§ 707-715. Terroristic threatening, defined.
A person commits the offense of terroristic threatening if the person
threatens, by word or conduct, to cause bodily injury to another person
or serious damage to property of another or to commit a felony:
(1) With the intent to terrorize, or in reckless disregard of the risk
of terrorizing, another person; or
(2) With intent to cause, or in reckless disregard of the risk of
causing evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of
public transportation.
§ 707-716. Terroristic threatening in the first degree.
(1) A person commits the offense of terroristic threatening
in the first degree if the person commits terroristic
threatening:
(a) By threatening another person on more than one occasion
for the same or a similar purpose;
(b) By threats made in a common scheme against different
persons;
(c) Against a public servant arising out of the performance
of the public servant's official duties. For the purposes of
this paragraph, "public servant" includes but is not limited
to an educational worker. "Educational worker" has the same
meaning as defined in section 707-711;
(d) Against any emergency medical services personnel who is
engaged in the performance of duty. For purposes of this
paragraph, "emergency medical services personnel" shall have
the same meaning as in section 321-222; or
(e) With the use of a dangerous instrument.
(2) Terroristic threatening in the first degree is a
class C felony.
[§ 707-717]. Terroristic threatening in the second degree.
(1) A person commits the offense of terroristic threatening in the
second degree if the person commits terroristic threatening other than as
provided in section 707-716.
(2) Terroristic threatening in the second degree is a misdemeanor.
707-713. Reckless endangering in the first degree.
(1) A person commits the offense of reckless endangering in the first
degree if the person employs widely dangerous means in a manner which
recklessly places another person in danger of death or serious bodily
injury or intentionally fires a firearm in a manner which recklessly
places another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury.
(2) Reckless endangering in the first degree is a class C felony.
§ 707-714. Reckless endangering in the second degree.
(1) A person commits the offense of reckless endangering in
the second degree if the person:
(a) Engages in conduct that recklessly places another
person in danger of death or serious bodily injury; or
(b) Intentionally discharges a firearm in a populated area,
in a residential area, or within the boundaries or in the
direction of any road, street, or highway; provided that the
provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to any person
who discharges a firearm upon a target range for the purpose
of the target shooting done in compliance with all laws and
regulations applicable thereto.
(2) Reckless endangering in the second degree is a
misdemeanor.
[L 1972, c 9, pt of § 1; am L 1990, c 62, § 1; gen ch 1992;
am L 2006, c 230, § 30]
