The U.S. Supreme Court has struck a blow to a Hawai’i gun law that bans firearms on private properties by default.
In Wolford v. Lopez, a 6-3 vote found that Hawaiʻi’s 'vampire rule' law prohibiting concealed firearm carry on private properties without explicit permission violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.
In the ruling's wake, the Hawaiʻi State Attorney General’s office released the following statement: "We are disappointed but respect the Court’s decision. The state of Hawaiʻi will continue to pursue common-sense regulation of firearms, consistent with the Second Amendment, for the safety of our people."
Gun rights activists in Hawaiʻi are celebrating the outcome of the case, which was initiated by the Hawaii Firearms Coalition and three Maui residents.
To learn more about the outcome of the ruling and how it will impact Hawaiʻi’s gun control efforts, HPR spoke to Hawaii Firearms Coalition attorney Kevin O’Grady.
“We're very pleased with the ruling,” O’Grady said in response to the outcome.
“I think what the U.S. Supreme Court conveyed in the Wolford matter is that the state's laws have to be tightly connected to historical standards, and so when the state says something like Hawaiʻi's general approaches, ‘we don't like guns,’ that's not going to have a historical standard,” he explained to HPR.
For O’Grady, the Supreme Court decision is a sign of things to come. “I think that first, what this is going to bring about, which is what we had intended already, is we're just going to be filing a ton more lawsuits, especially, I live here in Hawaiʻi.”
There are still ways for business owners to deny entry to those carrying concealed firearms, O’Grady said.
“If somebody wanted to say, well, ‘I don't want somebody to be able to carry a concealed … to be able to carry there,’ they can make it known by posting signs, or what have you,” he explained.
Private property owners around the state have already begun displaying signs denying entry to concealed gun owners.
This story aired on The Conversation on June 23, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
