Rhode Island Bill Shows Why Anti-Gun Lawmakers Should Never Be Trusted
By Tom Knighton | 7:31 PM | April 02, 2026
We all want to trust our lawmakers. The people we vote for, we want them to do what they say and to act in our interests. Where there's tension, though, is that everyone has different interests.
In Rhode Island, far too many people want gun control. For those who don't, it means having to deal with the fallout from that. Luckily, there are things like grandfather clauses, plus every anti-gunner says they don't want to ban guns, right?
So, how bad can it be? After all, while the state passed a law banning the sale of so-called assault weapons, you at least get to keep yours.
Yeah, about that whole "trust" thing I mentioned...
A proposed bill in the Rhode Island general assembly would ban the possession of particular military-style semiautomatic guns. The bill, introduced on Feb. 27, adds to legislation from last year that banned the manufacture, sale, transfer and purchase of prohibited firearms.
State Sen. Tiara Mack ’16 (D-Providence), the primary sponsor of the bill in the Senate, told The Herald that the Dec. 13 mass shooting at Brown and the Feb. 16 mass shooting in Pawtucket spurred a greater legislative push for stricter gun control across the state, though she noted that neither of these cases involved the use of assault weapons.
Mack said she believes the 2025 legislation was not “as strong as it could have been.”
“I don’t think last year we had the political appetite to fight back against the small minority of legislators that are prioritizing guns over people,” Mack said.
Mack explained that because the U.S. Constitution prevents unlawful seizure of private property, people who currently possess these weapons would potentially be “grandfathered in” and allowed to keep them.
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2026/04/02/rhode-island-bill-shows-why-anti-gun-lawmakers-should-never-be-trusted-n1232089#google_vignette
