RI Governor Pushes For Assault Weapon Ban Among Other Schemes

There’s a reason gun rights advocates call their opponents “gun grabbers.” It’s simple. Every gun control scheme ultimately amounts to taking away guns from ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

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While anti-gun activists claim they’re not doing anything of the sort, the truth is that just because I haven’t bought a gun yet doesn’t mean you’re not taking it away from me. You’re just doing it early by making it impossible for me to purchase one lawfully.

That’s why I can’t help but look at Rhode Island and shake my head at the latest example of gun grabbing.

Gov. Gina Raimondo is once again pushing for a package of gun control bills, including an assault weapons ban, that have failed to pass the General Assembly in past years.

Raimondo announced her gun control priorities along with Attorney General Peter Neronha at a news conference at the State House, scheduled on the first anniversary of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last year.

“Parkland, Las Vegas, Tree of Life, Sutherland Springs, San Bernardino, Sandy Hook,” Raimondo said, listing the locations of mass shootings in recent years. “The list goes on and on. In every single one of those instances that I just listed, lives were taken because of use of an assault weapon.”

Her three proposed bills have been slightly revised from previous versions that have been introduced. The bills would ban assault-style weapons, prohibit high-capacity magazines and ban guns on school grounds, with some exceptions.

Raimondo said the schools bill closes a loophole that has allowed concealed-carry permit holders to bring guns on school grounds. It would ban all possession of a gun within 300 feet of school grounds, unless on private property. It makes an exception for law enforcement officers or other contracted security officers at the school, or if the gun is unloaded and locked in a container in a car.

“You don’t want guns in proximity to kids in schools, period,” Raimondo said.

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Speak for yourself, lady.

I want law-abiding citizens with guns near my kids at all times. If it can’t be me, I want it to be someone else trustworthy.

The truth is, people are carrying around my children at any time of day. They’re doing it at the mall, the movie theater. Even at church in many places. Those guns are in proximity to children all over the state and the nation.

Guess what, though?

Nothing happens, nothing at all.

People who have concealed carry permits are trustworthy people who have undergone extensive background checks and represent no risk to a damn soul. If I have an issue with someone with a permit near my kids, it’s not because they’re armed. It’s because they’re an a** or something.

Raimondo doesn’t understand guns or gun people in the least. More to the point, I doubt she wants to. If she did, she’d learn how magazine restrictions are pointless or how assault weapon bans don’t reduce crime.

But, she doesn’t want to know that. She’d much rather push her anti-gun agenda through a legislature that has a grand total of 14 Republicans in it.

Rhode Islanders, you have my sympathy.

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