Estimated studying time: 2 minutes
Each time a state pushes an “assault weapon” or journal ban, lawmakers repeat the identical line: “We’re not coming on your weapons.” They are saying it solely bans future gross sales. They promise present house owners can maintain what they legally purchased. They name it “grandfathering.”
Till they don’t.
In accordance with Washington Gun Regulation President William Kirk, that precise state of affairs is now enjoying out in Rhode Island with Home Invoice 8073. The state already handed an assault weapon ban just a few years in the past. But it surely solely prohibited the manufacture, sale, switch, or buy of sure firearms. Possession was left untouched. That was the political promote.
Now?
Lawmakers try to amend the prevailing statute by including a single phrase: “possess.”
That’s it. One phrase.
The present regulation reads: “No particular person shall manufacture, promote, supply to promote, switch, or buy a prohibited firearm…”
HB 8073 would revise it to learn: “No particular person shall manufacture, promote, supply to promote, switch, possess, or buy a prohibited firearm…”
That one addition would remove the grandfather clause and immediately criminalize possession of firearms that had been beforehand authorized to personal.
If handed, the invoice would take impact July 1, with a compliance deadline of December 31, 2026. By then, affected gun house owners must promote, switch out of state, give up, or destroy their lawfully acquired firearms.
The one exemptions? Army and regulation enforcement.
Kirk factors out that that is precisely what many Second Modification advocates warned about when the unique ban handed. Grandfathering provisions aren’t everlasting protections. They exist solely till the following legislative session.
He additionally notes the timing. Simply final yr, the U.S. Supreme Court docket declined to listen to Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island, a case difficult the state’s gun restrictions. Critics warned that denial would embolden states to go additional.
Now Rhode Island seems able to just do that.
For gun house owners within the Ocean State, the message is blunt: what was as soon as offered as a restricted business restriction could quickly turn out to be a full possession ban. And for gun house owners nationwide, it’s a reminder that when lawmakers say, “We’re not coming on your weapons,” the high quality print issues. As a result of generally all it takes is one phrase.
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