The Idaho and Montana attorneys general are leading a 26-state coalition against Hawaii’s public carry ban.
All 26 Republican-led states are signed onto an amicus brief in the Wolford v. Lopez case out of the Ninth Circuit. Because the Second Circuit came to a different conclusion than the Ninth Circuit, the attorneys general are asking the United States Supreme Court to intervene and uphold the right to keep and bear arms.
Idaho’s Attorney General Raul Labrador said in a statement:
“The right to bear arms belongs to the people—not because government permits it, but because government is bound to protect it. Hawaii’s law turns that principle on its head, treating a guaranteed liberty as a regulated privilege. No government—federal or state—has the authority to take what it never had the power to give. If the courts do not intervene, this approach will become a blueprint for restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners nationwide. Idaho will not stand by. We will fight to uphold the Constitution and defend the freedoms it was established to protect.”
Montana’s Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, told the media in a press release:
“Bruen guarantees that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. The Ninth Circuit’s flawed decision puts that guarantee at risk. I hope the Supreme Court will take up the case and reverse the decision to reassure Montanans and Americans that our right to keep and bear arms will not be eroded. I will not stand idly by as Americans’ rights are in jeopardy. My office will continue to fight to uphold the Second Amendment.”
Hawaii’s public carry ban prohibits gun owners not only from carrying on essentially all public land, but it also requires gun owners to have a written contract with every private establishment they wish to carry into.
Hawaii’s ban is in violation of the Second Amendment. This type of law benefits criminals only, who will not obey it.
