By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Gun owners and Second Amendment activists descended on the Rhode Island Capitol Wednesday for a marathon public hearing which covered several pieces of legislation but primarily focused on one very unpopular measure, S 0359, the proposed Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2025.
This nine-page bill drew scores of yellow T-shirt-clad opponents, and also garnered bi-partisan opposition from legislative Democrats and Republicans alike. According to the Rhode Island Current, among the opponents were Democrat Senators Andrew Dimitrui, Todd Patalano and Leonidas Raptakis. The T-shirts were emblazoned with the message “Gun Control Does Not Work.”
“Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats took to the State Library an hour before the hearing to denounce the bill,” the Current reported.
But it was a mass of gun rights activists who crowded into the Capitol Rotunda, most wearing the yellow T-shirts—which visually overwhelmed anti-gunners wearing red T-Shirts—who made the biggest impression. People waited for hours to testify as the hearing dragged well into the evening.
The bill, sponsored by Democrat Sen. Lou DiPalma, is described by the Current as “one of the two avenues Gov. Dan McKee is testing this year in an attempt to ban the sale and manufacture of firearms with military-style features.” However, this is not a “reform” measure as suggested by the Current story. It’s a gun ban, pure and simple.
Veteran Plantation State gun rights advocate Jeff Gross told TGM via email, “This bill is a 100 percent violation of the Heller decision as all the listed S359 firearms total in the 100’s of thousands alone in RI, let alone millions in the USA.
“This bill is a 100 percent violation of the Bruen decision,” Gross continued, “as text history and tradition dictate that the right to bear these arms implicates the 2A, the RI government cannot show an analogous law in 1791 that bans certain weapons so by definition S359 is unconstitutional.”
He predicted the final bill, if it passes, “will be vastly different than the bill being heard in the Hearings right now.”
Under the current bill, the ban will not apply to anyone who already owns one of the firearms affected, provided they register the gun with their local police department, or the state police. Also exempt would be guns rendered permanently inoperable, or guns surrendered to a police agency, or someone who “Transfers or sells the assault weapon to a federally licensed firearm dealer or person or firm lawfully entitled to own or possess such weapon.”
WPRI News quoted William Worthy, owner of Big Bear Hunting & Fishing, who contended, “This type of a bill that would probably eliminate 60% of the firearms that are common here in Rhode Island, we’re all hunting, and we’re all sportsmen, and we enjoy going to the ranges and having a great time. A lot of those firearms would be made illegal.”
The Current report quoted Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, who concurred with Worthy’s assessment.
“If enacted, this ban would ban most weapons in common use here in Rhode Island, it would be a blatant violation of the United States Constitution as well as the Rhode Island constitution,” she stated.
WPRI also quoted Sen. Patalano, a major with the Cranston Police Department, who warned the measure “does absolutely nothing” to prevent crime.
“No matter how strongly others may argue, this bill appears to be an attempt to enact legislation that effectively alters constitutional rights,” Patalano stated.
Gross, in his email to TGM, estimated the number of pro-gunners was about ten times the number of gun control proponents who showed up for the lengthy hearing. Many gun owners arrived by bus, he noted.
The effort to ban an entire class of firearms has been going on in Rhode Island for decades, Gross recalled. He noted Al Syslo, owner of D&L Shooting Supplies in Warwick, has been traveling to the statehouse since the 1980s to fight the semi-auto ban.
In all likelihood, this battle will continue for the foreseeable future.
