Senate Dem Floats ‘Compromise’ on Rhode Island Gun Ban Bill

Rhode Island Senate President Valerie Lawson is keeping a proposed ban on almost all semi-automatic long guns in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which appears to be split on the gun ban bill. But in an effort to get the legislation to the Senate floor, Democrats are now pushing for a “compromise” measure slated for a vote in the Judiciary Committee this afternoon. 

The changes to H 5436 are pretty modest, and don’t change the fact that the legislation would make some of the most popular and commonly-owned rifles off-limits to Rhode Island residents in the future. 

A Senate press release said: “The amended bill includes more precise definitions of the weapons that would be prohibited.”

“The amendment also eliminates a requirement that owners of grandfathered weapons register them with local or state police, and does not include the voluntary program, proposed in House-passed legislation, through which those who already own the specified weapons could get a certificate of possession from their local police department,” the release said.

“Removal of this provision helps to assuage concerns that such language was tantamount to an unconstitutional gun registry.”

The definition of a “prohibited firearm” in the substitute bill now includes semi-automatic shotguns with a fixed magazine capacity of more than six rounds; any shotgun with a revolving cylinder; all semi-automatic rifles with fixed magazines holding more than ten rounds; and semi-automatic rifles that have the ability to accept a detachable magazine, and has at least one of the following features:

(A) A folding or telescoping stock;

B) A bayonet mount;

(C) A grenade launcher;

D) A shroud attached to the barrel or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the non-trigger hand without being burned, except an extension of the stock along the bottom of the barrel, which does not encircle or substantially encircle the barrel.

(E) A pistol grip or thumbhole stock; or 

(F) A flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor

The bill also bans semi-automatic pistols with a fixed magazine capacity exceeding ten and all semi-automatic firearms that have the ability to be belt-fed. 

The language has been narrowed from what passed the House, which essentially targeted all gas-operated semi-automatic long guns that could accept detachable magazines and included a registry of all existing owners. The registry has gone away, but the bill will still sweep up the vast majority of semi-automatic rifles on the market and make them illegal to sell and transfer in the state; with a potential ten-year prison sentence for manufacturing, selling, transferring, purchasing, or even offering to sell a prohibited firearm. 

There’s no way that Second Amendment advocates are going to be mollified by the changes, and the gun control lobby isn’t happy with them either. 

Reacting to the new posted version of the bill, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence put out a press release expressing “dismay” at the “weakened” version of the bill.

“Knowing we have a strong assault weapons ban bill that has already passed the House of Representatives (H5436A), and knowing that the bill has the votes on the Senate floor, we don’t understand how a weakened version of the bill would be acceptable to advocates, lawmakers or partners,” said RICAGV Executive Director Melissa Carden. “We have conveyed our opposition to this proposal in the Senate to Senate Leadership and our Senate sponsor.” 

Gun owners need to be conveying their own opposition to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If the bill gets to the Senate floor it’s virtually guaranteed approval, so it needs to be rejected today. These tweaks don’t do anything to change the gross infringement on our right to keep and bear arms contained in the legislation, and the opponents of H5436 on the committee need to stand firm when the proposed amendment comes up for a vote this afternoon.