A Stake to the Heart: U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Hawaii Vampire Law Restricting Concealed Carry
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Hawaii vampire law that prohibited firearm owners from bringing their guns onto private property open to the public unless they had permission of the property owner.
The Thursday ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a gun rights group and three Maui residents with concealed-carry permits who claimed that the 2023 state law infringed on their Second Amendment rights to bear arms. The group alleged that requiring them to obtain “express and affirmative consent” from private property owners, like those who operate gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores, before entering the premises with a concealed weapon violated their constitutionally protected rights.
Most of the justices agreed with the residents, voting six to three to dismantle the state law. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion that Hawaii’s law imposed severe restrictions on the daily activities of residents who had already satisfied the state’s requirements to obtain a concealed carry permit.
Alito focused on Hawaii’s practice of requiring express consent, which he explained departed from standard common-law rule on access to private property held open to the public.
“Under (common-law) rule, everyone, including those lawfully carrying firearms, may enter unless expressly prohibited from doing so,” Alito wrote. “By contrast, under the new Hawaii law, no one carrying a firearm may enter without the property owner’s express authorization.”
He added that this approach “hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives.”
In a dissenting opinion, Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back on Alito’s stance. She argued that the issue before the Court was not the Second Amendment but property law because “there is no constitutional right to enter private property without the owner’s permission, let alone with a firearm.”
Jackson explained that the predicament the Court should be focused on is “how a property owner must communicate his decision to exclude or to invite armed carry, including whether a state may alter the background property-law rules that set the default as one or the other.”
The Rise of Vampire Laws
The Supreme Court struck down New York state’s concealed carry ban in 2022 because it required residents to demonstrate a special need for self-protection before obtaining a permit.
In the wake of that decision, California, Hawaii, New York, and New Jersey enacted firearm restriction laws that were known as vampire laws. These types of laws typically require individuals carrying a firearm to obtain permission from private property owners before entering the premises—similar to how a vampire must ask a homeowner for permission to step inside.
These vampire laws, however, created a de facto public concealed carry ban in Hawaii because firearms were restricted unless carriers had permission from the property owner to bring their firearm onto the premise. Property owners could signal this permission publicly by posting signage that guns were allowed onsite, but that approach was not common in Hawaii.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of the Maui residents, urging the Court to strike down Hawaii’s vampire law. It called the Court’s decision a “victory” in a statement published on its website.
“If a business does not want you to carry a firearm on the premises, the burden should be on the proprietor, not the private citizen, which would be in line with the ‘no soliciting’ or ‘no shoes, no shirt, no service’ signs we’re all familiar with,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut.
SAF Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb also said in a statement that “other states that have similar laws in place should be on notice—SAF is coming after you and will not hesitate to challenge the continued disenfranchisement of our members and the public.”
Next Steps for Property Owners
Despite the Court’s ruling, property owners in Hawaii can still ban firearms from their premises by posting signage that firearms are prohibited onsite.
Some business owners are already planning to post these notices. Hawaii News Now interviewed Robbie Baldwin, owner of nightclub Scarlet Honolulu, who said he was preparing to post “no-gun signs.” He added that his bigger concern, however, is potential confrontations between customers and security staff about the prohibition on firearms.
“It’s not what your guests want to see. It’s not what we want our tourists to see,” Baldwin said. “We have been very good at keeping gun crime down, and this just kind of goes against all that.”
