 |
|
5/30/2025
|
House Judiciary Committee to vote on assault weapons ban
|
 STATE HOUSE – Legislation sponsored by Rep. Jason Knight to ban assault weapons in Rhode Island has been scheduled for a vote by the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday.
The committee is expected to consider an amendment to the bill (2025-H 5436) to refine the definitions of the firearms that will be classified as assault weapons, and to replace a requirement that grandfathered assault weapons be registered with police with a voluntary certification program to provide owners proof that their weapons are grandfathered.
The committee will meet Tuesday, June 3, at 3 p.m., in the House Lounge on the second floor of the State House.
Representative Knight (D-Dist. 67, Barrington, Warren), who is second vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has sponsored the bill since 2018 and said he is hopeful that the General Assembly will enact the bill this year. This is the first time the bill has been brought to a committee vote.
“Uvalde, Parkland, Las Vegas, the Pulse nightclub, Newtown, Aurora — in all of our nation’s deadliest mass shootings, the tool that enabled the perpetrator to kill so many victims was an assault weapon. They are preferred weapon of mass shooters because their sole purpose is to vastly increase the magnitude of death and destruction their user can inflict. We don’t need them here in Rhode Island,” said Representative Knight. “I am grateful to the many people who, year after year, have worked hard and shown up to advocate for this bill, which has evolved through study, collaboration and listening over all that time. I urge my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee and in the House and Senate to support its passage this year.”
The legislation would prohibit the manufacture, purchase, sale, transfer and possession of certain assault weapons including certain types of semi-automatic shotguns, rifles and pistols. It also levies criminal penalties for anyone convicted of violating the ban; and provides exemptions to the ban for current and retired law enforcement officers, active-duty members of the armed forces, National Guard or reserves, federally licensed firearm dealers, and individuals who lawfully possess an assault weapon on the effective date of the ban.
The proposed amendment includes more precise definitions of the weapons that would be prohibited. Those who already own weapons classified as assault weapons when the ban takes effect on July 1, 2026, would still be allowed to keep them, just as they would in the original version of the bill.
The amendment eliminates a requirement that they register them with local or state police. Instead, it creates a voluntary program through which those who already own assault weapons could get a certificate of possession from their local police department that would serve as legally admissible proof that their weapon is grandfathered. To assuage concerns that such certificates would serve as a de facto registry, the amendment’s language prohibits police from keeping any record of the application or granting of such certificates.
Since the certificate program would be voluntary, grandfathered owners could legally opt to do nothing when the bill takes effect.
Grandfathered owners would be subject to limitations on where they could possess the weapons. Allowable places would include their home, business or other property they own, licensed gun ranges and shooting clubs, sanctioned gun expos and similar events, and while transporting the weapon to and from such places or to a licensed gun dealer.
The federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004 and has yet to be reauthorized by Congress. Currently, 10 states have statutes that ban certain assault weapons.
Over the past several years, the General Assembly has passed several key pieces of gun safety legislation into law including bills to ban large-capacity gun magazines, require the safe storage of firearms, raise the legal age to purchase firearms or ammunition from 18 to 21, and prohibit the open carry of any loaded rifle or shotgun in public.
Legislation to more strongly regulate assault weapons is the last remaining unaddressed major legislative recommendation of a gun-safety working group established by former governor Gina M. Raimondo following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018.
This legislation is supported by all five of the state’s general officers as well as numerous groups that work to end gun violence. Polls continue to show a majority of Rhode Islanders are in favor of banning assault weapons.
Should the Judiciary Committee vote to approve the bill, it would then go to the full House of Representatives for a vote. Thirty-eight of the House’s 75 members — just over half — have cosponsored the legislation.
If it passes the House, it would then go to the Senate, where Sen. Louis P. DiPalma (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Little Compton, Tiverton, Newport) is sponsoring its Senate companion (2025-S 0359).
For more information, contact:
Larry Berman, Communications Director for the Office of the Speaker
State House Room 322
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-2466
|
|