Hawaii’s Amended Butterfly Knife Ban Moots Legal Challenge (1)

Hawaii’s decision to pare back a total ban on “butterfly” knives ultimately resolved a yearslong Second Amendment challenge to the original law, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

But the majority ruling from the 11-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit drew a sharp dissent from Judge Lawrence VanDyke, who has been a vocal critic of the appeals court’s views on Second Amendment rights.

Judge Eric D. Miller, writing for the majority, said that as the legal challenge to the Hawaii law was proceeding through the appeals process, the Hawaii legislature changed the complete ban ...