Rhode Island House Minority Leader Chippendale spews venom on partial Assault Weapons Ban

And I refute his bogus claims

By Will Collette

Mike Chippendale issued the news release below blasting the General Assembly for its passage of a much-watered down assault weapons ban. But he’s not concerned that it’s weak – my point of view – but that no legislation restricting any gun rights whatsoever should be enacted into law.

I think he’s wrong and I have taken the editorial prerogative to add my rebuttal to the RI Repubican Party’s news release, printed in full below.

My comments appear in bold red after each of Chipper’s claims.

State House, Providence, RI – Rhode Island House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale offers the following statement in regard to the Assault Weapons Ban legislation:

The passage of the amended Assault Weapons Ban marks a dark day for constitutional governance in Rhode Island. What was once presented as a public safety measure has now been fully unmasked as nothing more than a political trophy - an opportunistic maneuver by a handful of ambitious politicians desperate to elevate their public profiles and position themselves for higher office.

“Dark day for constitutional governance?” Really? The Supreme Court has upheld the right of states to regulate automatic weapons and rejected a Rhode Island lawsuit that tried to stop passage of this bill.

These are the very same lawmakers who, just weeks ago, decried administrative pay increases of $80,000 as irresponsible during a time of budget crisis. And yet, with full knowledge that this bill will trigger immediate and expensive legal challenges, they voted to expose our already strained state budget to the guaranteed costs of defending an unconstitutional law in court. The price tag? Hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of taxpayer dollars. Their hypocrisy is staggering.

I guess Republicans now understand the best way to communicate with the public is to engage in what Trump calls “riffing.” That’s going off the point into tangents that have nothing to do with the subject at hand. What the hell do administrative pay hikes have to do with banning weapons of mass death?

Let’s call it what it is: political theater, funded by the citizens of Rhode Island. These politicians are not standing on principle - they are using this bill as a weapon in their own political campaigns. Whether it's an attempt to deny the Governor a policy victory or to bolster their own bid for Attorney General, their actions are driven not by public safety, but by personal ambition.

Well, yeah Mike. Politics is mainly theatre. Your own remarks on the assault weapons ban are nothing more than that.

Worse still is the blatant disregard for the Constitution. These elected officials - who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution - have shredded that oath for the sake of a headline and a talking point. They know this bill flies in the face of the Second Amendment and recent Supreme Court precedent in Heller and Bruen. They know it targets law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to disarm criminals. And they know it will fail in court. Yet they voted for it anyway.

When there's "no school Foster-Glocester," watch out for Mike
exercising his 2nd Amendment rights 

Again, Mike, the Supreme Court has already ruled on states’ rights to ban or control a wide range of weapons. That’s why you are not allowed to own nuclear weapons or to mount a machine gun on your truck to handle the commute from Foster to Providence. You can’t have a rocket launcher either. Simply put, the Second Amendment is not absolute.

This legislation is nothing more than an insult to the law-abiding firearm owners in Rhode Island. It criminalizes the continued lawful purchase of firearms that are legal, stored safely, and used responsibly. It also undermines our eligibility for vital federal conservation funds, jeopardizing public land maintenance and our outdoor recreation economy. It will harm Rhode Island businesses, cost us jobs, and decrease revenue - all in the name of political ambition. And just as the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban – it will not stop a single crime, as criminals simply don’t follow the laws of our state and nation. To believe this ban will have any different result is naïve at best, and dishonest as worst.

I think what worries most reasonable people is the fact that military-style automatic weapons are designed to give the owner the ability to kill a lot of people very quickly. They are not for hunting or self-defense, with the possible exception of a zombie apocalypse.

In my opinion, the bill does not go far enough. In an attempt to placate gun people, the provision to ban the possession of these weapons was taken out of the bill. That was a mistake since it is demonstrably impossible to placate gun people.

Let’s also not forget the deceptive tactics employed to manufacture support for this bill. National groups like Everytown deliberately manipulated our public input process, misleading both the public and this legislative body. Their email campaigns were engineered to trick gun rights supporters into submitting pro-ban messages. These dishonest tactics further erode any credibility the supporters of this bill claim to have.

The truth is evident: this legislation is legally vulnerable, fiscally irresponsible, economically damaging, and wildly unpopular with the people of Rhode Island. Opposition at the State House outnumbered supporters by an overwhelming margin. The public testimony was clear. The emails to legislators have been unmistakable.

Of course there will be lawsuits. There always are. But the chances this ban will hold are very good.

Will it hurt the economy? Selling guns in Rhode Island is not exactly a key to economic growth and prosperity. How much is it worth to prevent a major massacre in a school, shopping center, beach or church?

And Mike, you are a liar to claim that banning assault weapons is “wildly unpopular” with Rhode Islanders when poll after poll show strong support for a ban and for additional sensible gun control measures. Even among gun owners. The most recent poll shows 64% of Rhode Islanders support the assault weapons ban. Counting yellow shirts in the peanut gallery at the State House is not a legitimate measure of public sentiment.

What just passed was not a thoughtful policy - it was a campaign stunt. And the people of Rhode Island will be the ones who pay the price.

Like most Rhode Islanders, whatever that price should be, I am more than willing to pay.

I remain committed to protecting the constitutional rights of Rhode Islanders and will oppose every attempt to erode them in the name of political ambition.