Rhode Island State Senator Cleared to Vote on ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban After Ethics Vote

Gun owners in Rhode Island received some potentially good news on Tuesday after the state’s Ethics Commission voted 8-1 in favor of allowing Senate Majority Leader Frank A. Ciccone, III to cast what could be a critical vote on a proposed ban on most semi-automatic long guns currently sold in the state. 

As we discussed yesterday, Ciccone, who has a federal firearms license but is not a full-time gun dealer, says he’s opposed to the current language in the gun ban bill, and could end up being the key vote to keep the legislation bottled up in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ciccone doesn’t actually sit on the committee, but as a member of Senate leadership he has the ability to temporarily join any committee and cast a vote on legislation under consideration. 

The Judiciary Committee is believed to be deadlocked on the gun ban bill, which would prohibit the sale of all centerfire semi-automatic rifles capable of accepting a detachable magazine (as well as many semi-automatic shotguns and almost all AR-style pistols). If Ciccone were to vote against the bill in committee it could be dead for the year… so long as other members of Senate leadership don’t countermand his vote with one of their own. 

 Senator Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, has proposed a bill to ban assault-style weapons. And last week, he said 24 of the Senate’s 37 current members are co-sponsoring that bill.

But Ciccone is not one of co-sponsors. He told the Globe he considers the bill to be unconstitutional. “It had some language in it that I don’t think would’ve passed muster,” he said, citing a provision for a gun registry.

Also, Ciccone said DiPalma’s bill proposed banning “a list of probably every single type weapon you could think of. He said he told DiPalma, “This looks like an old bill rehashed, so I’m gonna pass on it.”

Last week, the bill came before the 10-member Senate Judiciary Committee, which is seen as being evenly split between supporters and opponents of the bill. The bill’s fate could hinge on whether Ciccone, new Senate President Valarie J. Lawson, and Senate Majority Whip David P. Tikoian use their ex-officio powers to vote the bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor. 

Ciccone did not commit to voting the bill out of committee. He said the House might be making changes to the legislation, and he wants to see what the amended bill looks like.

The current text of the gun ban bill allows existing owners to maintain possession of their firearms, but only if they register them with law enforcement. The House may water down the measure to include a permit-to-purchase provision that would allow modern sporting rifles to continue to be sold, but only to those who undergo additional steps to obtain a permission slip from licensing authorities. 

That’s what ended up happening with SB 3 in Colorado, and while that modification wouldn’t mollify Second Amendment advocates it might be enough to get the bill out of committee and on to the Senate floor for a vote by the full chamber. 

The best outcome for gun owners would be for DiPalma’s gun ban bill to be defeated in committee with the help of Ciccone, but as the Boston Globe notes, he’s not the only member of Senate leadership who could cast a vote. Senate President Valerie Lawson is already a co-sponsor of SB 359, and while Majority Whip Tikoian hasn’t officially signed on to DiPalma’s bill, he’s been a reliable vote for anti-gun measures in the past and earned an “F” rating from the NRA’s Political Victory Fund in 2024. 

Rhode Island gun owners have turned out in large numbers at the statehouse to voice their objections to the bill, and their efforts have already had an impact. Whether we can derail the bill completely remains to be seen, but Ciccone’s ability to vote on (and hopefully vote down) the measure is at least a small step in the right direction for those of us who want to curb a blatant attempt to infringe on a fundamental right.