15-05-2025
Gun bills draw a crowd to R.I. State House for seven and a half hours of testimony
Advocates from opposite sides of the gun debate sign up to testify on the proposed assault weapons ban during a May 14, 2025, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Rhode Island State House. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Dozens of Second Amendment and gun control advocates alike filled the Rhode Island State House rotunda, floors and halls Wednesday, many waiting hours to testify on a bill that would ban a wide array of semiautomatic weapons statewide.
It was also a long day for the Senate Committee on Judiciary, which heard seven and a half hours of testimony on 15 gun bills. But nearly every speaker addressed bill S0359 — also known as the Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2025 — sponsored by Middletown Democratic Sen. Lou DiPalma. Unlike most hearings, Senate staff allowed only a small number of people into Room 313 at a time, and only one row of chairs for people testifying. A Capitol police officer, senate staff, and a stanchion were stationed outside the door to control the flow of people entering the room.
As the hearing rolled into its seventh hour, Sen. Mark McKenney, a Warwick Democrat, subbed in for Committee Chair Sen. Matthew LaMountain, who had stepped out of the room momentarily. LaMountain and McKenney are listed as co-sponsors on the bill text.
Yellow is color of the day as gun rights advocates turn out to oppose assault weapons ban bill
'It sure would make life easier for us if we could simply make policy based on the T-shirt colors,' McKenney joked after one yellow-shirted Second Amendment supporter pointed out yellow shirts outnumbered the red and orange shirts of gun control advocates as they did in years past.
DiPalma's bill, plus companion House submission by Barrington Democratic Rep. Jason Knight, is one of two avenues Gov. Dan McKee is testing this year in an attempt to ban the sale and manufacture of firearms with military-style features. The bills' interpretation includes semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns equipped with accessories such as pistol grips, folding stocks, or threaded barrels.
The bills would build on prior reforms passed during McKee's tenure, like a magazine cap, an age 21-and-over carrying limit, and a ban on open carry of shotguns and large rifles — successful efforts DiPalma mentioned in his testimony to fellow senators.
'Some will say this is not going to do everything. You're absolutely correct. This is not going to do everything,' DiPalma said. 'It's yet another building block in the framework of gun safety and gun violence.
The push to forbid select semiautomatic weapons is old hat at the State House, but this year things have changed following the April 21 death of former Senate President Dominick Ruggerio — a longtime skeptic of firearm bans who had expressed a possible change of heart in his final months. Now, with Senate leadership refreshed, the fate of the bill depends upon the Senate Committee on Judiciary.
DiPalma said 24 senators have signed on to support his bill, or 64% of the 38-member body, now down one vote to 37 with Ruggerio's District 4 seat vacant. Another bill co-sponsor is Senate President Valarie Lawson, attended the hearing at various points.
'President Lawson personally supports an assault weapons ban,' spokesperson Greg Paré said over email Wednesday. 'She believes strongly in the committee review process and will let it play out.'
Judiciary has 10 members. Committee members Sen. Andrew Dimitri, a freshman Democrat from Johnston, newly elected Sen. Todd Patalano, a Cranston Democrat, and Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat, voiced their opposition to the bill. Republican Sen. Thomas Paolino was mostly quiet during the hearing but has voted against similar legislation in the past.
'I think it's drawn confusion because we're referring to them all as assault weapons, when, in reality, this bill does not really distinguish actual, quote/unquote, assault weapons from handguns and certain kinds of shotguns,' Dimitri, a recreational bird hunter, said during the hearing.
Raptakis wondered if a study commission should be formed instead.
'I don't know what you would study beyond what's already been studied. It's either we agree or we don't it's the right time to do it,' DiPalma replied, gesturing with his hands.
Raptakis returned to the proposal of a study commission around 9:25 pm, right before the last five testimonies took the stand.
'Thank you,' a weary-sounding LaMountain replied after Raptakis shared the idea.
Other senators who sat in on the hearing were Majority Leader Frank Ciccone, who is a licensed gun dealer; Majority Whip David Tikoian, a former North Providence police chief who also served 23 years on the Rhode Island State Police; and the Republican leadership, Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz of North Providence and Minority Whip Gordon Rogers of Foster.
Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats took to the State Library an hour before the hearing to denounce the bill. The Democrats in attendance included Ciccone and Tikoian, who stood in the audience, as did Rep. Arthur Corvese of North Providence. Reps. Stephen Casey of Woonsocket, and Deborah Fellela of Johnston stood in the lineup alongside de la Cruz, Rogers, Patalano and gun rights advocates.
'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,' de le Cruz said.
Rogers blasted the bill's reliance on 'military-style' features to define an assault weapon, and held up a forward folding grip for the crowd.
'Same gun, same round, same ammunition,' Rogers said. 'but when you put a grip on it forward as an accessory, it becomes an assault weapon. Does that make it any more dangerous? No. Do we go around banning cars that have chrome rims and spoilers on because they look dangerous? No, we don't.'
De la Cruz and Rogers continued those lines of argument during the hearing, with both critiquing the bill's language as vague and unreflective of mechanical reality — as well as DiPalma's understanding of kinetic energy.
'The gun has a firing pin that triggers the bullet — the ammunition — that is where the kinetic energy comes from, not the firearm,' Rogers told DiPalma. 'So we bring up the kinetic energy and what it does. And I think you were very theatrical last year, or the year before, when that was brought forward.'
Rogers framed Rhode Island's proposed ban as a political outlier rather than a national standard. Only nine states have such bans, he said. 'That tells me 41 states haven't,' he added.
An hour-long expert panel brought sharply divided testimony from both sides, from constitutional precedent for bans to historical efforts to forbid sawed off shotguns and bowie knives.
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.
– Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican
Jake McGuigan, senior director of government relations for the National Shooting Sports Foundation and a former adviser to Gov. Donald Carcieri, cited homicide data as a reason the bill would be narrowly focused and not accomplish much.
'If we look over the past 13 years, 0.6% — that's 0.6%, not even one percent — of all homicides in Rhode Island are attributed to rifles that will be banned by this bill,' McGuigan said. 'Why do we need a common-sense approach to address 0.6%?…That's not a problem, that's a rounding error.'
Greg Lickenbrock, a former gun magazine editor and firearms analyst with Everytown for Gun Safety, pushed back.
'Those are lives, not rounding errors,' Lickenbrock said.
After experts departed, a wider range of views emerged. Andrew Wright of Pawtucket criticized the measure as racially and socially exclusionary.
Gun control 'always just enforces a white supremacist status quo,' he said. 'Black and brown people, Asian people, queer and trans people are buying guns more now than they were before. They're the people who are going to be most affected by their inability to buy guns that match the weapons already in the hands of the people who want to do them harm.'
As the hearing stretched into the evening, more gun control advocates came forward, including Emily Howe a mother of three who described the fear she feels daily for her two kids still in school.
'I've never allowed my kids to wear light-up shoes because I'm really afraid that one day that will be the end of them,' she said. 'If there's a gunman, my kids will be quiet — but the light-up shoes would be one to set them off and let them know where they're hiding.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
