Hawaii’s magazine capacity law caps detachable pistol magazines at ten rounds. The restriction covers manufacturing, possessing, selling, trading, gifting, transferring, or acquiring any detachable magazine over ten rounds that is designed for or capable of use with a pistol, and there is no grandfather clause for magazines you owned before the ban.1Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-8 – Ownership, Etc., of Automatic Firearms, Silencers, Etc., Prohibited; Penalties A violation is a misdemeanor when the magazine is sitting on its own, but becomes a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison the moment that magazine is inserted into a pistol.
What the Ten-Round Limit Actually Covers
Two words in the statute do most of the work: “detachable” and “pistol.” Fixed magazines are not the target. Rifle-only magazines are not the target either. What is banned is any detachable magazine over ten rounds that is designed for a pistol or capable of use with one.1Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-8 – Ownership, Etc., of Automatic Firearms, Silencers, Etc., Prohibited; Penalties
That “capable of use with” phrase matters if you own a pistol-caliber carbine or any platform that shares magazines with a handgun. If the magazine physically fits and functions in a pistol, it falls under the ten-round cap regardless of what firearm you actually intend to use it in. Owners of AR-style pistols and Glock-compatible carbines are the ones who most often get caught by this. The test is not what gun you own. It is whether the magazine could work in a pistol.
No Grandfather Clause
Hawaii does not exempt magazines purchased before the ban took effect. It does not matter when you bought the magazine, where you bought it, or how long you have owned it. If a detachable pistol magazine holds more than ten rounds and has not been permanently modified, possessing it in Hawaii is illegal.1Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-8 – Ownership, Etc., of Automatic Firearms, Silencers, Etc., Prohibited; Penalties Anyone relocating from a state without capacity limits needs to deal with their magazines before arriving, not after.
Penalties
The penalty structure turns on one specific fact: whether the prohibited magazine is inserted into a pistol at the time of the offense.1Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-8 – Ownership, Etc., of Automatic Firearms, Silencers, Etc., Prohibited; Penalties
- If the magazine is not inserted into a pistol, possessing, selling, manufacturing, or transferring it is a misdemeanor.
- If the magazine is inserted into a pistol, the same conduct is a Class C felony, carrying up to five years in prison.
A prohibited magazine loaded into a firearm is a much different case than the same magazine sitting in a drawer. The stakes jump dramatically at that point. A felony conviction also triggers federal consequences: under federal law, anyone convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year loses the right to possess firearms and ammunition nationwide, and that loss is permanent absent a pardon or specific restoration of rights.
The One Way to Keep a Higher-Capacity Magazine
The statute allows an exception for a magazine originally built to hold more than ten rounds if it has been modified to accept no more than ten rounds and cannot be readily restored to its original capacity.1Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-8 – Ownership, Etc., of Automatic Firearms, Silencers, Etc., Prohibited; Penalties A permanently pinned or blocked magazine can be lawful if the modification is genuinely permanent.
The statute does not spell out the physical standards. It does not name rivets, epoxy, or welding as required methods. The legal test is whether the magazine is “not capable of being readily restored” to its original capacity. A removable baseplate spacer that pops out in seconds almost certainly fails that test. A steel rivet or weld that requires tools and destruction of the magazine body is on far stronger legal ground. If you go the modification route, err heavily on the side of permanence. A gunsmith familiar with Hawaii law is the safest option, and the work typically costs around $25 per magazine.
Who Is Exempt
The exemption list is narrow. State and county law enforcement officers are covered. So are federal agents whose official equipment includes firearms and ammunition. Members of the U.S. armed forces and the Hawaii National Guard are exempt as well, but only while performing duties that require them to be armed or while traveling to and from those duties. The exemption does not carry over to off-duty personal firearms.2Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-11 – Exemptions
There is no exemption for licensed private security guards, competitive shooters, or out-of-state visitors. Hawaii offers no temporary permit or competition carve-out that would let a nonresident bring a prohibited magazine into the state for a match or event. Licensed dealers and gunsmiths can handle prohibited magazines in the course of business with authorized buyers such as law enforcement agencies, and that is the extent of any commercial exemption.
Moving to Hawaii With Magazines
Anyone relocating to Hawaii who brings a firearm must register it with the chief of police of the county where they live or work within five days of the firearm’s arrival in the state.3Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-3 – Registration, Mandatory, Exceptions The registration is done in person, and the firearm itself must be brought in for physical inspection.4Honolulu Police Department. Firearms
Magazines themselves do not require separate registration, but registration day is the wrong day to still be holding a prohibited one. Before your move, sell any prohibited magazines in a state where they are legal, have them permanently modified to ten-round capacity, or dispose of them.
Traveling Into or Through Hawaii
Hawaii allows transporting unloaded firearms in an enclosed container between specific locations: your home, a licensed dealer, a repair shop, a target range, and organized firearms shows.5Justia. Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-25 – Place to Keep Pistol or Revolver; Penalty The statute says “enclosed container” rather than requiring a lock, but a locked case avoids ambiguity during a traffic stop.
For air travel, federal rules require firearms to be unloaded, declared at the airline ticket counter, and transported in a locked hard-sided case as checked baggage. Magazines and ammunition clips must be securely boxed or placed inside the hard-sided case with the unloaded firearm.6Transportation Security Administration. Transporting Firearms and Ammunition Correct packing does not override Hawaii’s capacity laws. You still cannot arrive with a prohibited magazine no matter how well it is packed.
Gun owners sometimes ask whether the federal Firearms Owners Protection Act allows them to pass through Hawaii with prohibited magazines. The federal safe passage provision protects travelers moving firearms through a state where the firearms would otherwise be illegal, as long as they are unloaded and inaccessible during transport.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 926A – Interstate Transportation of Firearms In practice, Hawaii is an island chain, not a state anyone drives through on the way somewhere else. Almost every traveler arriving with a firearm is either staying or has a Hawaii-specific destination, which undercuts the passing-through argument. Do not rely on safe passage as a defense.
Violations found at airports and harbors can trigger both state and federal charges. TSA screens checked baggage and will flag improperly packed firearms, and Hawaii law enforcement at the point of entry enforces local capacity restrictions. A single trip can generate charges in two jurisdictions.
Getting Rid of Prohibited Magazines
Hawaii has no permanent statutory amnesty program that guarantees protection for turning in prohibited magazines. Occasional buyback or amnesty events have been held at the county level, but they are one-off programs that depend on local law enforcement organizing them. Outside of those events, calling your county police department to ask about voluntary surrender is the safest approach, though no statute clearly guarantees immunity for walking in with an illegal item. Call ahead and follow whatever procedure the department provides. Do not show up unannounced.
The other legal path is permanent modification by a qualified gunsmith so the magazine cannot hold more than ten rounds and cannot be readily restored. Done correctly, that keeps the magazine legal to own. Done halfway, it does not.