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SB3060
THE SENATE
S.B. NO.
3060
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating
to Use of Force in Self-protection
.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
����
SECTION
1
.
�
The legislature finds that agriculture is a
crucial industry in the State.
�
Existing
self-defense laws operate from an asymmetrical default.
�
When an individual resorts to deadly force,
the law imposes a heightened threshold of mental awareness, situational
understanding, and decision-making rationality, requiring the individual to
perceive the nature of the threat, assess available alternatives, and select a
legally permissible response under rapidly evolving circumstances.
�
This asymmetry is especially pronounced on
agricultural lands where spatial isolation, limited access to immediate law
enforcement assistance, and the practical realities of active agricultural
operations constrain the range of immediate and feasible options available to
farmers and ranchers.
�
In the absence of
a stand-your-ground law, individuals engaged in lawful agricultural activity
may be held to legal expectations that do not fully account for these
operational realities, thereby creating a structural mismatch between doctrinal
self-defense standards and the conditions under which confrontations on
agricultural lands typically occur.
�
In
this context, the absence of a stand your ground law does not merely preserve a
duty to retreat, it effectively presumes the availability of retreat, rational
deliberations, or the immediate availability of law enforcement officers under
conditions that often do not exist in active agricultural settings.
����
The legislature further finds that this
doctrinal framework assumes that the duty to retreat and exhaust all avenues of
avoidance prior to using deadly force is the normative contextual basis in
which agricultural workers engage while working ranches and farmlands.
�
Often agricultural work is conducted in
rural, geographically isolated locations, far removed from the immediate
availability of adequate law enforcement responses, rendering these isolated
locations particularly vulnerable to agricultural theft, vandalism, trespassing,
and escalations in physical confrontations.
�
The existing self-defense doctrine, while neutral on its face, may
function differently in agricultural contexts, and thereby warrants legislative
action.
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The legislature further finds that
according to the Hawaii Agricultural Theft and Vandalism Survey 2024, during
the 2024 observation period, there were 2,312 incidents of theft, fifty-nine
incidents of vandalism, and 9,224 incidents of trespassing on agricultural
properties.
�
Most concerning were the
number of instances where threats of violence arose from trespassing incidents,
recorded at one hundred forty-five.
�
Respondents noted that the elapsed time between a report of an incident
of theft, vandalism, or trespassing and the response from law enforcement
officers averaged less than three days ninety-one per cent of the time.
�
Only forty-seven arrests were made in
response to these reports, a mere 7.3 per cent of the total number of incidents
reported to authorities.
�
22.5 per cent
of recorded trespassing incidents were reported as violent encounters;
therefore, two out of every ten trespassing encounters may result in a violent
interaction requiring the use of self-defense.
�
Therefore, the legislature seeks to strike a
balance that enhances legal protections for agricultural workers at risk of
violent interactions without diminishing agricultural activity, the sanctity of
human life, or public safety at-large.
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Therefore, the purpose of this Act is to amend
the State's self-defense laws to deprioritize the duty to retreat in certain
circumstances, allowing agricultural workers a legal right to stand their
ground to exercise deadly force in justifiable contexts.
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SECTION
2
.
�
Section
703-300, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new definition to be
appropriately inserted and to read as follows:
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"
"Agricultural
land" means any land in excess of one acre, including adjacent and
contiguous land parcels managed as one unit collectively, used primarily for a
farming operation, as defined in section 165-2, including land used for farm
buildings and dwellings, roads, and irrigation infrastructure associated with
the agricultural land.
"
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SECTION
3
.
�
Section
703-304, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
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"
�703-304
�
Use of force in self-protection.
�
(1)
�
Subject to the provisions of
this section and of section 703-308, the use of force upon or toward another
person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately
necessary for the purpose of protecting [
himself
]
the actor's person
against the use of unlawful force by the other person on the present occasion.
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(2)
�
The use of deadly force is justifiable under
this section if the actor believes that deadly force is necessary to protect [
himself
]
the actor's person
against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping,
rape, or forcible sodomy.
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(3)
�
Except as otherwise provided in subsections
(4) and (5) [
of this section
], a person employing protective force may
estimate the necessity thereof under the circumstances as [
he
]
the person
believes them to be when the force is used without retreating, surrendering
possession, doing any other act [
which he
]
that the person
has no
legal duty to do, or abstaining from any lawful action.
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(4)
�
The use of force is not justifiable under
this section:
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(a)
�
To resist an arrest which the actor
knows is being made by a law enforcement officer, although the arrest is
unlawful; or
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(b)
�
To resist force used by the occupier or
possessor of property or by another person on [
his
]
the occupier's or
possessor's
behalf, where the actor knows that the person using the force
is doing so under a claim of right to protect the property[
, except
]
;
provided
that this limitation shall not apply if:
���������
(i)
�
The actor is a public officer acting in
the performance of [
his
]
the public officer's
duties [
or
]
,
a person lawfully assisting [
him
]
the public officer
therein
,
or a person making or assisting in a lawful arrest; or
��������
(ii)
�
The actor believes that [
such
]
force is necessary to protect [
himself
]
the actor's person
against
death or serious bodily injury.
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(5)
�
The use of deadly force is not justifiable
under this section if:
����
(a)
�
The actor, with the intent of causing
death or serious bodily injury, provoked the use of force against [
himself
]
the actor's self
in the same encounter; or
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(b)
�
The actor knows that [
he
]
the
actor
can avoid the necessity of using such force with complete safety by
retreating or by surrendering possession of a thing to a person asserting a
claim of right thereto or by complying with a demand that [
he
]
the
actor
abstain from any action which [
he
]
the actor
has no
duty to take, except that:
���������
(i)
�
The actor is not obliged to retreat
from [
his
]
the actor's
dwelling or place of work, unless [
he
]
the actor
was the initial aggressor or is assailed in [
his
]
the
actor's
place of work by another person whose place of work the actor knows
it to be; [
and
]
��������
(ii)
�
The actor is not obliged to retreat
from agricultural lands if the actor is lawfully present as an owner, lessee,
employee, or agent of the State, unless the actor was the initial aggressor;
and
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�
[
(ii)
]
�
(iii)
�
A public officer justified in using force in the performance of [
his
]
the public officer's
duties, or a person justified in using force in [
his
]
the public officer's
assistance or a person justified in using force in
making an arrest or preventing an escape, is not obliged to desist from efforts
to perform [
his
]
the public officer or other justified person's
duty, effect the arrest, or prevent the escape because of resistance or
threatened resistance by or on behalf of the person against whom the action is directed.
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(6)
�
The justification afforded by this section
extends to the use of confinement as protective force only if the actor takes
all reasonable measures to terminate the confinement as soon as [
he
]
the
actor
knows that [
he
]
the actor
safely can, unless the person
confined has been arrested on a charge of crime."
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SECTION
4.
�
Statutory material to be repealed is
bracketed and stricken.
�
New statutory
material is underscored.
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SECTION
5.
�
This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
INTRODUCED BY:
_____________________________
Report Title:
Stand
Your Ground; Self-Defense; Defense of Other Persons; Duty to Retreat; Agricultural
Lands; Agricultural Workers
Description:
Provides
that an actor is not
obliged to retreat for purposes of self-defense and
defense of others, from agricultural lands if the actor is lawfully present as
an owner, lessee, employee, or agent of the State, unless the actor was the
initial aggressor.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.