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The legal battle in Hawaii continues
By Zach Arnold | February 18, 2006
By Zach Arnold
There’s good news and bad news, according to a report in Saturday’s edition of The Honolulu Advertiser. Writer Treena Shapiro notes that legislation to try to cripple MMA in Hawaii has been stalled:
A prohibition on mixed martial arts fighting is also essentially dead for the year, as is a bill that would allow police to issue licenses so residents can carry concealed weapons.
That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news.
Waters, D-51st (Waimanalo, Lanikai), who introduced the mixed martial arts bills and the traffic fine surcharge, said he will look for opportunities to resurrect the measures this year, particularly those aimed at getting more money to county law enforcement.
Otherwise, he plans to introduce the bills again next session.
“Sometimes these things take more than a year to gain steam,” he said.
Topics: All Topics, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
“Sometimes these things take more than a year to gain steam,†he said.
The mma promoters in Hawaii have earned a reprieve but not a victory. If they have any concern for their long term survival, they will get lobbyists and lawyers on the case right now. They need to start refuting potential arguments, bring in supportive data and get grass roots support for mma as legitimate sport. The first thing I would do is see if someone like Mark Ratner of the NSAC would be amendable to to being a freindly information source. California based everything on the UFC and NSAC so perhaps the Hawaiian contingent could use the same tactic. Indeed, the UFC might even be willing to be supportive–but probably only if they ever see Hawaii as a ppv future location (which I think is a good idea).