Anti-gun Democrats in the Rhode Island General Assembly, reportedly led by Gov. Dan McKee, appear poised to pass a sweeping ban on so-called “assault weapons” while the tiny state’s gun owners are girding for battle.
They got some reinforcement from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, (CCRKBA) which issued a call to grassroots activists to fight.
Democrats have introduced H-5436, which targets virtually every self-loading rifle, regardless of caliber, capable of accepting detachable magazines. Only semi-automatic rifles of .22-caliber rimfire with tubular magazines would be exempt from the proposed ban.
Veteran Rhode Island gun rights advocate Jeff Gross asserted to Ammoland the bill “is a 100 percent clear-cut violation of Heller and Bruen decisions.” He said the measure violates the state constitution and state law, because it involves registration.
That is essentially what WJAR News also reported.
“This comes as state law says government firearm registration is prohibited,” the station noted.
WJAR quoted Republican Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, who said, “That’s not constitutional, it’s not legal.”
Language in the bill allows for people to retain their currently-owned semi-autos if the person “Registers the assault weapon with the police department in the city or town where the person resides or, if there is no such police department or the person resides out of state, with the Rhode Island state police in accordance with the provisions of this chapter…”
“I am trying to alert as many gun owners in Rhode Island as possible,” Gross said. “The reaction is complete uproar. The gun community is fed up with the anti-gun situation here in Rhode Island.”
However, instead of digging in and fighting, Gross lamented, “Year after year for the last 10 years has been hemorrhaging good, hard working conservative people to other states.”
The same scenario is playing out in other states, including California, Oregon and Washington on the West Coast, where Democrats have dominated politics for the past several years, thanks in part to conservative voter apathy.
The nine-page Rhode Island bill may be read here.
The Providence Journal is reporting the legislation, if passed, “would make it illegal to ‘manufacture, sell, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, possess … an assault weapon,’ except under limited circumstances.”
“The penalty for a violation would be up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000 and forfeiture of the weapon,” the newspaper said.
The Journal quoted State Rep. Jason Knight, claiming “The pendulum has swung.” Further, the newspaper said Senate President Dominick Ruggerio “is no longer an avowed opponent, and those fighting passage ‘are in the extreme minority in the state.’”
But those in the minority still have rights, and according to CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, H-5436 will trample those rights.
“When Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha declares in a prepared statement there is ‘no need’ for a private citizen to own a certain type of firearm,” Gottlieb commented in a prepared statement, “one has to wonder who put him in charge of determining someone else’s ‘need.’ Besides, the Second Amendment is not about anyone’s ‘needs,’ it’s about rights. It is actually the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights.”
That’s why CCRKBA is encouraging Plantation State gun owners to “vigorously oppose H-5436.”
Interestingly, when proponents of the ban held a presser to announce the bill, they were accompanied by Brown University student Mia Tretta, who was seriously wounded in a California school shooting when she was 15. According to the Journal story, Tretta declared, “When I learned Rhode Island had no assault weapons ban, I was shocked. Assault weapons are often the weapon of choice for mass and school shooters because they are designed to kill as many people as possible in a short of period of time.”
But that’s not quite the whole story. When Nathaniel Berhow opened fire on Nov. 14, 2019 at Saugus High School in Samta Clarita, he wasn’t armed with an “assault weapon.” Instead, he was using a .45-caliber pistol, according to an account in Wikipedia. He violated several existing California and federal laws, killing two students and wounding three others before taking his own life. It was Berhow’s 16th birthday, and he had no known connection to the students he shot.
If H-5436 becomes law, expect court challenges. Gross told Ammoland he is prepared to take out a loan to help finance such a lawsuit, and he would be first in line to be a plaintiff.
About Dave Workman
