We can't let RI's 'assault weapons' ban become the US gun seizure blueprint

Rhode Island lawmakers are back at it — pushing a sweeping gun ban that should set off alarm bells far beyond the Ocean State. Their latest proposal, SB 2710, would outlaw the possession of some of the most commonly owned firearms in America, targeting semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns that millions of law-abiding citizens rely on for self-defense, sport and tradition.

What makes this proposal especially alarming is not just what it bans, but how it leaves enforcement hanging in the air. The bill is conspicuously silent on how the state intends to deal with currently owned firearms that would suddenly become illegal overnight.

That silence is not reassuring. It opens the door to exactly the kind of heavy-handed enforcement Americans have long rejected — the forced surrender or even door-to-door confiscation of legally acquired property.

For those trying to comply with forced confiscation, the so-called "sales option" is no option at all. Lawful owners would be forced to sell their firearms to federally licensed dealers or qualified out-of-state buyers by the end of the year, triggering a rushed liquidation that will inevitably drive down prices.

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If gun owners comply with this law, they would sell their property at a substantial loss, and if they want to rearm after the law is struck down, they would end up paying twice for a gun they already owned.

In plain terms, the government would be engineering a fire sale of constitutionally  conduct, stripping citizens not only of their rights but of their property value as well.

And if the potential of forcible confiscation were not enough, Rhode Island lawmakers are also advancing schemes to require gun owners to carry million-dollar liability insurance policies. This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with cost. It is a calculated effort to price ordinary Americans out of exercising a constitutional right — turning the Second Amendment into a luxury good reserved for those who can afford to comply.

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We’ve seen this playbook before. Just last year Rhode Island banned the manufacture, sale and purchase of these firearms but allowed owners who previously acquired them to keep them. Now legislators want to finish the job — give gun control advocates an inch, and they take a mile, targeting commerce in firearms today and the firearm already in your safe tomorrow.

As detailed in reports from the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, including Rhode Island’s Senate Judiciary attack on the Second Amendment and extreme gun bill package, this coordinated push threatens every Ocean State gun owner — and sets a precedent that could ripple outward nationwide. The slippery slope is unmistakable, and it will spread, as do all ill-conceived gun control schemes, to other states that ignore the Constitution.

Anti-gun politicians understand they may someday lose in court. It was, after all, sweeping bans on handguns in Washington, D.C., and Chicago that ushered in the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment renaissance, and the reasoning of those cases applies equally well to common semi-automatic long guns Americans choose for defensive purposes.

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But for the firearm prohibitionist, the courtroom loss is beside the point. The process itself — passing the law, enforcing it until it’s struck down, and forcing taxpayers to foot the legal bill — is the strategy.

It drains resources from their opponents, chills lawful conduct, and advances their agenda by attrition. It also diverts attention from an endless succession of lesser infringements that seek the death of the Second Amendment by a thousand cuts.

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Meanwhile, the real-world impact falls on the very people whose gun ownership poses no threat to public safety: responsible gun owners who follow the law, safeguard their firearms, and take seriously their duty to protect themselves and their families. Disarming them does nothing to stop violent criminals, who, by definition, do not comply with gun bans. It simply leaves good people more vulnerable.

The Second Amendment does not change when you cross a state border. The right to defend oneself and one’s family is not dependent on a particular ZIP code, income level, or the shifting political winds in a state legislature.

Yet that is exactly what Rhode Island lawmakers are trying to impose — a patchwork of rights where some Americans are treated as less deserving than others. Cases like these demand the Supreme Court settle them once and for all, as in Bruen and Heller. Until then, state capitols remain the battleground where Second Amendment rights hang by a thread.

Rhode Island may be small, but the implications of this legislation are anything but. This is a test case for how far lawmakers can go in dismantling a fundamental right — and how much Americans are willing to tolerate before pushing back. The 2026 midterms are coming. Voters in every state must remember which lawmakers treat the Second Amendment as optional — and hold them accountable at the ballot box this November.