Hey guys! I will be moving soon and want to bring my firearms with me. What are some rules or tips that you can give me? Regestration? Restrictions? Coming from California so use to sucky gun laws lol any help would be appreciated.

For long gun registrations a person needs to apply and receive a Long Gun Permit to Acquire from the county PD records department.  That would entail background check (both criminal and medical/mental clearance) and fingerprinting (Rap Back fee is $42 in Maui).  For handgun permits, a Hawaii State certified handgun safety course or hunters safety course completion certificate is require in addition to the background check mentioned previously.  Guns entering the state needs to be held by a FFL dealer until all firearm registration requirements are met.  When requirements are met, you can go back to the FFL dealer, show the dealer your permit(s), pay them the FFL transfer fees, then you can finalize registration by bringing your firearms to the county PD records department.  Good luck.

If you're bringing your own guns there are no fees.  Just a registration process.  You'll take the guns to a police station in your area and fill out paperwork.  Do an internet search for your island and area.  Some places require an appointment.  Others don't.

Restrictions to be aware of would include 10 round mags for pistols (not that you'll bring those in from Cali) and "Assault Pistols".  Anything classified as a pistol that looks like a "machine gun" is out.  No AR or AK pistols.  No semi-auto MAC's, MP5's, or Uzi's.

http://hawaiirifleassociation.org/hawaii-gun-laws/

Sorry, the poster above you stated that there are fees, and that you need to hand your firearms over to an FFL upon arrival. Which is true?

If you are moving out here and bringing firearms, you have to register for RAPBACK and that costs about $42.  You dont have to get a long gun or handgun permit to bring them over, only to purchase them over here.  Just bring them cased and unloaded to the police station and they will have you fill out paperwork and register them.  No need to bring them to an FFL.  This is what I did when I moved over to Oahu, other islands might very though.

Check with your destination PD for the rules. On Kauai you had 3 calendar days to register incoming firearms. My firearms arrived late in the day before Thanksgiving, and the firearms section of the PD was closed for 4 days. They gave me a bunch of grief about not registering within the 3 days even though there was no way to do it.

If you bring over your personally owned firearms when you fly over here then you can just register them with your local police.  However if you do an FFL transfer you are subject to all of Hawaii’s insane firearms acquisition laws to pick up your own property from the receiving FFL.  This is on top of having to pay shipping fees and the FFL usage fees.  Also many FFL dealers here don’t do transfers

He could be right since that law was introduced after I imported my own guns.  I thought it was required for permitting.  If it's required for registering shit you already own then it is what it is.  You've just put yourself on a confiscation list if you do this, by the way.  The whole point of rapback is to come take your guns if you commit a crime in another state.

Dude....you are basically moving from one anti-gun state to another. Good luck. Aloha.

It seems like bringing them with you on the flight is the way to go then. amirite?

I would bring them with me unless you are talking about more than you can carry to HPD.  Keep in mind that your firearms must be Hawaii legal (No NFA and no handgun mags over 10+). In fact i wouldn’t even bother to bring the mags to HPD.  They are not required and less to carry.

What island?

Check them in and declare them.  Obviously have them unloaded.  best to have them in their own hard plastic gun cases and with locks on them.

When you get in, go to your PD and register them.  They will tell you want to do.  It's easy and the ones I worked with all thought the laws were just as dumb as we think they are.

Mike