PROVIDENCE – Gov. Daniel J. McKee on Thursday signed a bill banning the manufacture, purchase, sale, and transfer of several types of semiautomatic and accessorized firearms, commonly referred to by gun control advocates as “assault” or “military-style” weapons.
These include shotguns with fixed capacities exceeding six rounds and semi-automatic rifles with fixed magazine capacities greater than 10 rounds.
“We all know the impact they’ve had in our country; they are the weapons that have been used in the most lethal mass shootings carried out in the United States,” said Sen. Louis P. DiPalma, D-Middletown, the sponsor of the Senate bill.
DiPalma said the law “will end the proliferation of these weapons in our state and, as the experience in other states with similar bans has shown, will result in significantly fewer of them as time goes on.”
House sponsor Rep. Jason Knight, D-Barrington, said when combined with existing federal law, the ban “turns off the spigot of AR-style weapons in Rhode Island and will diminish their numbers as well as gun violence in our state.”
The law goes into effect July 1, 2026, and includes exceptions for law enforcement agencies and federally licensed firearms dealers. Gunowners in lawful possession of the covered firearms can continue to possess them. Criminal penalties include up to 10 years in prison, fines up to $10,000, and forfeiture of the firearm.
Original versions of the bill were amended to remove the requirement that current owners of the weapons covered under the law would have to register them with local or state police, which supporting lawmakers in a press release said would “assuage concerns that such language was tantamount to an unconstitutional gun registry.”
Calling the measure “common-sense gun control,” House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said “the art of compromise is essential in order to get good things done.”
Monisha Henley, senior vice president of government affairs at the national gun control advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety, called the law "a massive step forward in limiting access to weapons of war and a Rhode Island free from gun violence."
Advocates and their Smith Hill allies, who had been pushing for an assault weapons ban for more than a decade, cite polling claiming that close to two-thirds of Rhode Islanders supported the measure. However, opponents have countered that these polls are often poorly worded and only capture the views of a fraction of the state’s constituents.
(CORRECTION: Clarifies bill does not ban possession)
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com
