PROVIDENCE — By an 8-6 vote Wednesday, June 18, the Judiciary Committee of the State Senate passed an amended bill, 2025-S359, which, coupled with a version passed by the House of Representative, would institute an assault weapons ban in Rhode Island.

According to the legislation, the amended language changes the bill to "prohibit the manufacture, transfer, and sale of the semi-automatic assault rifles that have been used in the country's deadliest mass shootings — AR-15s and AK-47s — which account for the vast majority of assault weapons sold today. This narrows the bill to cover fewer pistols and shotguns, but overall still covers the majority of the assault weapons market."

Further revisions to the bill include the following:

• If someone wanted an AR-15 or AK-47 rifle after the date of enactment, they would have to purchase one with a fixed magazine — like the models currently sold in Massachusetts and New York. These guns are slower to reload, giving bystanders valuable time to escape a mass shooting situation.
• Semi-automatic rifles are deadly because they fire high-velocity ammunition, are easy to reload, and have shoulder stocks that make them more accurate than pistols, especially when firing rapidly.
• The bill would not touch a number of firearms commonly used for self-defense, hunting, and competitive shooting, including most semi-automatic shotguns and pistols.
• The bill is similar to Washington State's law that bans sales, purchases, and transfers of assault weapons but does not restrict possession.

Rep. Jason Knight (D-Dist. 67, Warren, Barrington) was the lead sponsor of the original bill in the lower chamber. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis DiPalma (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Little Compton, Newport, Tiverton) was the lead in the upper chamber. Judiciary also considered an identical amendment to House version, 2025-H 5436A, also sponsored by Knight.

With both the House and Senate voting on a flurry of bills as the 2025 session comes to a close, Knight was unable to provide a comment after Wednesday's vote.

A week ago, after the House approved Knight's version, the bill appeared to have hit a dead end in the Senate. However, upon changes it was able to eventually get out of committee June 18.

In the lead up to the Judiciary hearing, Chairman Matthew LaMountain said, “While some committee members’ sincerely held beliefs make them unlikely to support any version of this legislation, I believe that the majority of the committee members brought their concerns to the table in a good faith effort to improve the legislation before us. I encourage all of my colleagues to support this common-sense gun safety legislation.”

The ayes were: LaMountain, Senate President Valarie Lawson (D-Dist. 14, East Providence), Majority Leader Frank Ciccone, Judiciary Vice Chair Mark McKenney, Jacob Bissaillon, John Burke, Dawn Euer and Ana Quezada.

The nays were: Democrats Leonidas Raptakis, Andrew Dimitri and Todd Patalano along with Republican Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, Minority Whip Gordon Rogers and fellow GOPer Thomas Paolino.

In voicing his dissent prior to the Judiciary vote, Raptakis said, "I just want to make a comment, very quickly, the difference between the two original bills, anything of that nature. I know the bill's been condensed, but I just want to make a comment that I need to emphasize my disgust that we are once again infringing on the Second Amendment rights of all Rhode Islanders.

"No form of firearms ban is acceptable under the guise of making us safer. It's ridiculous. If anything, we are less safe because law abiding citizens will not be able to buy weapons to defend themselves next year. It's also great regret I must vote to pass 359, Sub A to prevent the even worse version, House version and Senate version, which makes over 160,000 people criminals as of July 2nd, 2026, just for (possessing) a banned firearm."

The legislation now heads to the Senate floor for a full vote of the body scheduled for Friday afternoon, June 20, at 2 p.m.

Later Wednesday evening, advocates for the bill expressed their dismay that the amended version was passed rather than original pieces of Knight and DiPalma.

Said Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence Executive Director Melissa Carden, "In a state where all of our general officers and the majority of legislators in both the House and Senate, including the Speaker and Senate President, are gun safety champions, it makes absolutely no sense that we have to accept this severely weakened version of the assault weapons ban in the Ocean State.

"Our advocates continue to work hard on passing Representative Knight's version of this bill. Knowing this legislation has already passed the House and has the majority support in the Senate makes this particularly concerning after 12 years of advocacy. It begs the question, where is the outrage from our supporters on this important issue?”