Gun control activists and Democrats in the Rhode Island legislature intent on passing a sweeping ban on almost all semi-automatic long guns are engaged in a full-court press to get Senate President Valerie Lawson to reverse course and move the gun ban bill to a friendlier committee than the one to which it’s been assigned. 

As we reported last Friday, Lawson rejected an attempt to reassign the bill to the Senate Finance Committee, where the gun ban bill has enough supporters to pass, instead of keeping it in the Senate Judiciary Committee where it was originally sent after passing the House earlier this month. The Judiicary Committee is believed to be deadlocked on the gun ban proposal, which means it could stall out despite the fact that the legislation has the support of a majority of state senators. 

Senator Pamela J. Lauria, who was behind the failed parliamentary procedure, told the Boston Globe that Lawson’s rebuff of her request “all but guarantees the bill’s demise”. I hope she’s right, because HR 436 is an egregious infringement on our Second Amendment rights. The bill would prohibit the sale of every gas-operated semi-automatic centerfire long gun that can accept a detachable magazine, as well as requiring current owners to provide documentation that they legally purchased their firearm before the ban took effect. 

Though Lawson denied the request to move the bill to a friendlier committee, gun owners and Second Amendment supporters in the state can’t let up on their pressure to lawmakers.   

On Friday, Senate spokesman Greg Pare said, “The Senate president is engaged in discussions with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She is working to win passage of that bill. That is the process we have.”

Pare noted the legislation was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee before Lawson became Senate president, and the committee heard hours of testimony on the bill.

[Sen. Ryan W. ] Pearson has claimed that during the Senate leadership battle in April, new Majority Leader Frank A. Ciccone III and Lawson promised conservative senators they would send the ban on assault-style weapons to the divided Senate Judiciary Committee to die. In response, Lawson and Ciccone issued a statement, saying, “No such promises were made.”

We still have two weeks left in the legislative session, and backers of the gun ban bill are hoping they can flood Lawson’s office with enough phone calls and emails to get her to reverse course. They’re also targeting members of the Judiciary Committee, knowing that if they can persuade a single opponent to switch sides and support the bill it can get out of committee and on to the Senate floor, where it’s assured of passage. 

This bill is a top priority for the gun control lobby nationwide, since it’s their last real opportunity this year to enact a new state-level ban. Colorado’s SB 3 was watered down to allow for the continued purchase of these arms so long as buyers undergo additional training and acquire a permit-to-purchase from their county sheriff, while similar bills in New Mexico and Hawaii were respectively left in committee and defeated outright. 

With the Supreme Court likely to consider the constitutionality of a semi-auto ban “in a term or two” (to quote Justice Brett Kavanaugh), the anti-gunners are desperate to increase the number of states that have banned so-called assault weapons before SCOTUS grants cert to a legal challenge. It’s absolutely critical that Rhode Island’s Second Amendment community keep up the amazing work they’ve done throughout the session, and hopefully in a couple of weeks we’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief and have a moment to celebrate before we get back to the work of defending and strengthening our right to keep and bear arms.