Associated Press
Honolulu has agreed to grant or deny applications to carry guns in public within four months of submission in response to a lawsuit by residents who complained of delays of up to a year, according to a stipulation signed by a federal judge Friday. The March lawsuit alleged that the long delays were the city’s way of keeping the permitting process as restrictive as it was before a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that upended gun laws nationwide. Before the Bruen decision, which held that people have a right to carry for self-defense, Hawaii’s county police chiefs rarely issued licenses for either open or concealed carry.