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SCAP-23-0000053 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF HAWAIʻI 

STATE OF HAWAIʻI, 

Plaintiff-Appellant, 

vs. 

MICHAEL ELEFANTE, 

Defendant-Appellee. 

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SECOND CIRCUIT 

(CAAP-23-0000053; CASE NO. 2CPC-22-0000261) 

SUMMARY DISPOSITION ORDER 

(By: Recktenwald, C.J., McKenna, and Eddins, JJ., Circuit Judge Tonaki 

and Circuit Judge Morikawa, assigned by reason of vacancies) 

On May 12, 2020, Michael Elefante checked himself into the 

hospital. A nurse inventoried his belongings. Inside his 

backpack, she found a loaded pistol. The hospital called the 

police.

Elefante lacked a license to carry a weapon pursuant to 

Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes (HRS) § 134-9 (2011). 

On April 12, 2022, the County of Maui Department of the 

Prosecuting Attorney charged Elefante with one “place to keep” 

Electronically Filed

Supreme Court

SCAP-23-0000053

08-MAR-2024

11:02 AM

Dkt. 9 SO
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offense in violation of HRS § 134-25 (2011). 

In September 2022, Elefante moved to dismiss. He 

maintained that the Second Amendment to the United States 

Constitution, as newly imagined by New York State Rifle & Pistol 

Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), provided a right to bear arms 

in public for possible self-defense. Article I, section 17 of 

the Hawaiʻi Constitution, too, he claimed.

Circuit Court of the Second Circuit Judge Kelsey T. Kawano 

agreed with Elefante, dismissing his case. 

The State appealed. It said Elefante lacked standing to 

challenge the constitutionality of HRS § 134-9 – Hawaiʻi’s 

license to carry law - because he didn’t bother to ask for a 

license. 

In October 2023, Elefante applied for transfer to this 

court. He said the case raises “essentially the same issues” as 

State v. Wilson, then pending before us. Now decided. State v. 

Wilson, ___ P.3d ___, 2024 WL 466105 (Haw. 2024). 

We granted transfer. 

We resolve this case the same way as Wilson. There, the 

defendant chose not to seek a license to carry, so he lacked 

standing to challenge Hawaiʻi’s license-to-carry law, HRS § 134-

9. Id. at *4. Like Wilson, Elefante did not try to get a 

license. Therefore, he lacks standing to challenge HRS § 134-9. 

Elefante has standing to challenge the law he was charged 
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with violating, HRS § 134-25. See id. at *3. Wilson examined 

whether HRS § 134-25 conforms to article I, section 17 of the 

Hawaiʻi Constitution. This court concluded that article I, 

section 17 confers a collective, militia-based right to bear 

arms. Id. at *7. Not an individual right to carry weapons in 

public for possible self-defense. Id. Thus, HRS § 134-25 does 

not violate the Hawaiʻi Constitution. 

Wilson also held that HRS § 134-25 does not violate the 

Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Id. at *20. 

Under Bruen, “[s]tates retain the authority to require that 

individuals have a license before carrying firearms in public.” 

Id.; Bruen, 597 U.S. at 79-80 (Kavanaugh, J. concurring). 

That’s what HRS § 134-25 does. 

Accordingly, we conclude that HRS § 134-25 does not violate 

Elefante’s rights under the Hawaiʻi or U.S. Constitutions. We 

hold that the circuit court erred by granting Elefante’s motion 

to dismiss. We vacate the circuit court’s order and remand the 

case for further proceedings. 

DATED: Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, March 8, 2024. 

Richard B. Rost 

for appellant 

Henry P. Ting 

for appellee 

/s/ Mark E. Recktenwald 

/s/ Sabrina S. McKenna 

/s/ Todd W. Eddins 

/s/ John M. Tonaki 

/s/ Trish K. Morikawa