The tragic shooting in Arizona of a U.S. congresswoman and her supporters outside a Tuscon grocery store has sparked national debate about gun ownership. A central question appears to be why Jared Loughner, the suspected shooter who suffered from mental illness, was allowed to buy a gun. Hawaii regulates gun sales and imposes some restrictions on people diagnosed with mental health problems. Would Loughner be denied a gun permit in Hawaii? The Honolulu Police Department can’t say for sure. What is clear is that although gun deaths in Hawaii are among the lowest in the country, ownership appears to be growing — a lot. Hawaii had a gun death rate of 2.82 per 100,000 residents in 2007, the lowest in the country according to the Washington-based Violence Policy Center. But the number of new weapons registered each year on Oahu has more than doubled in the past five years, from 5,219 in 2005 to 10,952 in 2010.

Read it at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.