November 24, 2025

NSSF Files Amicus Brief in Support of Challenge to Hawaii’s Second Amendment Restrictions in Wolford v. Lopez

WASHINGTON, D.C.—NSSF^®, the Firearm Industry Trade Association, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law prohibiting the carry of handguns by licensed conceal carry permit holders on private property open to the public unless the owner gives express permission.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld Hawaii’s law, concluding that while it implicates the plain text of the Second Amendment, it is nevertheless constitutional because it fits within the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. NSSF’s brief urges the Supreme Court to reject and overrule the Ninth Circuit’s decision.

“The Second Amendment grants law-abiding Americans the Constitutional right to bear arms and any such law that relegates that right to the backbench is unconstitutional and should be struck down,” NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane stated. “Hawaii’s law makes it nearly impossible for law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm for self-defense as they have a constitutional right to do. The Supreme Court should recognize Hawaii’s gamesmanship in trying to get around the Court’s prior decisions vindicating Second Amendment rights and strike the law down. No other Constitutional right is relegated as a second-class right and Hawaii’s law immediately turns unwitting Americans into criminals when exercising that right.”

In its brief, NSSF argues that Hawaii’s law “unquestionably restricts conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment—namely, bearing arms.”  Likewise, the law fails under the historical tradition test: “Hawaii’s law flips the tradition of limited and well-defined restrictions on the carry right on its head, creating a default rule that law-abiding citizens cannot carry firearms as they go about their daily lives unless private property owners express override that state-imposed preference.”

NSSF contends that Hawaii’s law is a blatant effort to frustrate the right to keep and bear arms, as it is both a historical and modern-day outlier.

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About NSSF
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org.

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Media contact:
Mark Oliva
202-220-1340

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