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June 26, 2025
Rhode Island Sends MSR Ban to Governor Despite Recent SCOTUS Warnings
It’s possible gun control activist legislators in Rhode Island – including Gov. Dan McKee – haven’t seen or read recent opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court specifically mentioning or pertaining to Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs), like the AR-15 and AK-47 varieties of semiautomatic rifles they just banned in their state. Or maybe they have and are just more interested in scoring political points and getting patted on the back by their gun control special-interest donors than they are in following the U.S. Constitution and protecting the Second Amendment rights of Rhode Islanders.
Either way, Democratic legislators in the Ocean State just plowed ahead and passed a bill banning the manufacture and sale of MSRs, which are more commonly-owned than there are Ford F-150 pickup trucks on the road today, and Gov. McKee has promised to sign it into law.
“I’m proud that Rhode Island took an important step forward in protecting our communities from gun violence. I included an assault weapons ban in my budget for this very reason — and as a result, tonight we saw progress,” the governor posted to social media immediately after the bill passed. “I thank the General Assembly and the many advocates for their tireless work, and I hope they’ll join me when I sign this bill into law.”
R.I. House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale reacted succinctly. “It will be challenged in court, it will be overturned but the people of Rhode Island will continue to pay for these kinds of cases to be litigated,” he said.
If recent comments by both liberal and conservative Supreme Court Justices are considered, Minority Leader Chippendale is exactly right.
That Makes Eleven
When Gov. McKee gets around to signing the legislation, titled the Unlawful Sale of Prohibited Firearms Act, Rhode Island will join nine other states, as well as the District of Columbia, that have enacted a ban on MSRs. Rhode Island’s bill, which has been in the works in one version or another for more than a decade, bans the manufacture and sale (though not possession) of the most popular-selling semiautomatic rifles in the country. There are currently more than 30 million MSRs in circulation today. Despite clear signs the bill is blatantly unconstitutional, lawmakers plowed ahead – and even some were disappointed the ban bill didn’t do more.
“I will be voting for today’s bill,” Democratic state Sen. Megan Kallman said, “but I will be doing so over my own very deep disappointment in this chamber, because we had the opportunity to do something better, stronger and with much more moral clarity than we are doing.”
Democratic state Rep. Rebecca Kislak added her dismay that the bill didn’t go further, too. “I am gravely disappointed we are not doing more, and we should do more,” she said. “And given the opportunity to do this or nothing, I am voting to do something.”
There was plenty of additional praise for the bill that infringes on Constitutional rights. In addition to the minority leader’s comments, there was also rightful criticism for the bill. Not only is it unconstitutional but also doesn’t do what supporters promise it will.
“This bill doesn’t go after criminals, it just puts the burden on law-abiding citizens,” explained Republican state Sen. Thomas Paolino.
Sen. Paolino, the Chairman of the state’s Republican Party added, “Democrats in this state have abandoned the Constitution, abandoned the people, and embraced a one-party dictatorship that no longer hides its contempt for freedom.”
In a courageous act, Democratic Sen. Andrew Dimitri bucked his party and said he voted no because the bill “punishes good people … hurts small businesses … does nothing to stop crime … [and] includes common, everyday guns that people use for personal protection that have no business being classified as assault weapons.”
“I’m not even sure anybody in the chamber can correctly define what an assault weapon is,” Sen. Dimitri said.
The bill is expected to be signed into law by Gov. McKee any day now.
SCOTUS Implications
Rhode Island House Minority Leader Chippendale’s comments regarding taxpayers “continuing to pay for these kinds of cases to be litigated,” seems awfully prescient. Especially given a couple of opinions recently handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court and comments made by both conservative and liberal justices – including specifically about AR-15-style firearms. Second Amendment supporters have been watching and waiting for the Supreme Court to take up a MSR ban case for years to reinforce the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms of commonly-owned, legally-possessed firearms, including the so-called “assault weapons” that the Rhode Island bill bans.
Early in June, the Court declined to hear the appeals in Snope v. Brown and in the NSSF-funded Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island cases challenging on Second Amendment grounds Maryland’s ban on Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and Rhode Island’s ban on standard sized magazines, respectively.
NSSF agrees with the view expressed by Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissent from the denial of cert in the Snope case, in which he wrote he “would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. [The Supreme Court has] avoided deciding it for a full decade. And, further percolation is of little value when lower courts in the jurisdictions that ban AR–15s appear bent on distorting this Court’s Second Amendment precedents.” He added, “I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right. Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right.’”
Conversely, NSSF respectfully disagrees with Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s statement respecting the denial of cert in the Snope case that the Court should wait a “Term or two” before taking action to stop the lower courts from misapplying the Court’s holdings in Heller and Bruen to deny the Second Amendment rights of millions of law-abiding Americans living in the states that have enacted laws banning MSRs and magazines.
Also in early June, liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote the Court’s unanimous opinion in Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., et al. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, rejecting Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. firearm manufacturers. In her opinion Justice Kagan specifically recognized the ubiquitousness of MSRs. Mexico argued in their case that manufacturers are liable due to “design and marketing choices” intended to “stimulate” the narco-terrorist drug cartels’ demand for their products, which included the production of “military style assault weapons,” including AR-15 rifles, AK-47 rifles and .50 caliber rifles. The Court rejected these allegations as “nothing of consequence,” with Justice Kagan explaining that “those products are both widely legal and bought by many ordinary consumers” and the AR-15 “is the most popular rifle in the country.” As a result, manufacturers “cannot be charged with assisting in criminal acts just because Mexican cartel members like those guns too.”
As noted, the bill is on its way to Gov. McKee’s desk, though it’s unclear exactly when he will sign the bill into law as he is widely expected to do. NSSF is watching closely.
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