Anti-gun politicians in Providence moved one step closer to adopting the most drastic gun ban in Rhode Island history. The House of Representatives, after hours of debate, passed a trio of gun bills. The following bills were passed late Friday night:
H.6614 by Rep. Justine Caldwell is a magazine ban. The bill is drastic with no grandfathering and forces gun owners to get rid of any magazines capable of holding over 10 rounds or become a felon and lose your firearms for life. Because many handguns do not have standard magazines below the arbitrary limit created by this legislation, these guns essentially would become obsolete.
H.7457 by Rep. Teresa Tanzi increases the age from 18 to 21 for the purchase of firearms and ammunition, rendering self-defense for an entire class of legal adults impossible. The 9th Circuit Court recently struck down a similar state law on the West Coast. This issue is certain to be litigated further. This bill is so bad it would require a 50-year-old person who has shot their entire life to have a training safety card to even buy a box of ammunition.
H.7358 by Rep. Leonela Felix defines shotguns and rifles as weapons and prevents them from being loaded in public. That is a sweeping prohibition. The bill essentially says your gun can only be loaded in your home with narrow hunting exceptions. That is a significant attack on your right to self-defense. Furthermore, the bill prohibits magazines from being loaded! That’s right, it seems as if the bill’s sponsor doesn’t realize a bullet cannot be fired from a magazine, and certainly a magazine not loaded into a firearm. This bill is conceptually flawed.
There is zero evidence that the sweeping gun ban passed Friday night will improve public safety. Rhode Island already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and that is according to gun-ban groups. This has always been about exploiting tragedy to pass a political agenda – banning guns. Progressive Democrats even stood in unison against domestic violence victims. They rejected an amendment creating an exemption to the magazine ban for victims who have taken out a protection order against an abuser.
The Senate versions of these bills will receive a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday night. The Senate Judiciary Committee vote is likely to come down to one vote. Sen. John Burke is the swing vote on that committee, and every gun owner in the state should contact Sen. Burke and respectfully ask him to vote against these bills and save the Second Amendment in Rhode Island. Please use the TAKE ACTION button below to contact Sen. John Burke to urge him to oppose this trio of anti-gun bills.
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