Surrender Your Guns, Police Tell Hawaiian Medical Marijuana Patients

The Honolulu Police Department has sent letters to local medical marijuana patients ordering them to “voluntarily surrender” their firearms because of their MMJ status.

The letters, signed by Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard, inform patients that they have 30 days upon receipt of the letter to transfer ownership or turn in their firearms and ammunition to the Honolulu Police.

The existence of the notices, first reported early today by Russ Belville at The Marijuana Agenda podcast, was confirmed to Leafly News this afternoon by the Honolulu Police Department.

The startling order comes just three months after the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Hawaii’s capital city.

'Lock her up': Girl who mistakenly shot elk 'bullied' as wildlife officials decide her fate

Wildlife officials have not decided whether any citations or warnings will be issued after a 14-year-old mistakenly shot a protect elk.

Abby Wilson, 14, shot the elk on Saturday in Boone County, thinking it was a large white-tailed buck. Her father, Donald White, immediately called the Conservation Department upon realizing his daughter's mistake.

"There is no elk season in Missouri, so free ranging elk are protected," said Tom Strother, an MDC Protection Regional Supervisor. "It is a Wildlife Code violation to shoot a free ranging elk as there are no provisions that outline a hunting season like there is for white-tailed deer."

As of Tuesday, conservation officials had not finished their investigation into the unusual case or decided whether warnings will be issued.

Pentagon has known of crime reporting lapses for 20 years

The Pentagon has known for at least two decades about failures to give military criminal history information to the FBI, including the type of information the Air Force didn't report about the Texas church gunman who had assaulted his wife and stepson while an airman.

The Air Force lapse in the Devin P. Kelley case, which is now under review by the Pentagon's inspector general, made it possible for him to buy guns before his attack Sunday at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Twenty-six people were killed, including multiple members of some families. About 20 other people were wounded.

New details emerged, meanwhile, about his troubled Air Force career. In 2012, several months before his conviction in the domestic violence case, Kelley escaped from a civilian mental health center where he had been placed by the Air Force for treatment, according to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek. She confirmed a Houston TV station report that was based on an El Paso, Texas, police report. Stefanek said privacy laws prohibited her from saying what Kelley was being treated for.

Papa John's says NFL protests are hurting sales


Papa John's is blaming the NFL for hitting its bottom line.

The pizza company, an official sponsor of the league, sliced its sales and profit forecasts on Tuesday. And Papa John's founder and CEO John Schnatter wasn't shy about who he thinks is to blame: Commissioner Roger Goodell.

"Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership," Schnatter said on a conference call with investors Wednesday. "The NFL has hurt Papa John's shareholders."

NFL ratings, like the rest of network television, are in a slump. Through Week 7, NFL viewership is down 5% overall from the same point last year.