The legislation to ban new sales of guns defined as assault weapons is seen as having the support to make it through a vote by the full state Senate. But therein lies the rub. To get to the Senate floor, the bill first has to win approval from the closely divided Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate President Val Lawson could use her power to move the legislation to a different committee with more support. But Lawson’s deputy, Majority Leader Frank Ciccone, is a staunch gun rights supporter — and it remains unclear if the effort to ban so-called assault weapons will make it to the Senate floor this year. So has the effort in the House been for nothing? If the Senate kills the bill, what comes next? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in depth with state Representative Jason Knight, Democrat of Barrington, who sponsored the assault weapon ban in the House.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for clarity
Ian Donnis: Welcome back to The Public’s radio.
Rep. Jason Knight: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Donnis: You first introduced a bill to ban so-called assault weapons back in 2018. It’s been a long fight, but this week the House of Representatives has moved forward with the legislation. The real question is whether this will reach the Senate floor where approval would seem assured. The question is whether this will get a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee or get an affirmative vote there. What level of confidence from zero to 100 do you have that the senate companion version of this bill will reach the Senate floor?
Rep. Knight: Well, listen, Ian when it comes to the Senate, I am not a member over there. I’m just a constituent like you are. I’ve worked hard along with my colleagues and I want to give a special shout out to Speaker Shekarchi for moving this bill in the House and where I expect it to pass. And what happens in the Senate is truly up to the senators. I appreciate that they have some obstacles over there, but I know that out of all the senators that are there the vast majority of them support this bill. So I hope that they’ll find a way to do the right thing on this bill and pass it so it becomes law and makes Rhode Islanders safer from gun violence.
Donnis: There’ve been a number of polls that show majority support for the kind of ban in your legislation of so-called assault weapons, what will it tell us about Rhode Island politics if the Rhode Island Senate kills this bill?
Rep. Knight: Well, I’ve told my colleagues all this year and really all last year that the public is there and ready for this. And frankly, what you’re seeing in the house right now is the politics catching up to where the people are. So if it’s not passed, if something happens under the dome that causes this bill not to get a full hearing and a full up or down vote in both chambers. I think that the public will certainly take note of that and I don’t think they’ll be pleased.
Donnis: If the assault weapon ban bill does die this year, what kind of political fallout would you expect specifically?
Rep. Knight: I mean, every race is different. There’s 75 house districts. There’s 38 senate districts, each and every one of which has its own character. So I can’t predict with to you, with any certainty the specific political fallout that would happen anywhere. And honestly, that’s all palace intrigue. And it’s, frankly, it’s a hypothetical and, you know, politicians shouldn’t do hypotheticals. I’m here to say this, the house is gonna do the right thing. My expectation is that we’ll pass it. And I certainly hope the Senate will do it. And just like I said before, if that doesn’t happen, I think the public will be upset because the vast majority of the public want this bill. We know that from polls a few years ago, polls even just in the last few months, and polls even in just the last few weeks. We understand where the public is on this, and I think their elected representatives should follow them and pass this bill.
Donnis: How do you respond to the argument from people on the other side of this issue that targeting particular kinds of guns is wrongheaded. Since criminals don’t obey the law, there are a lot of black market illegally sold guns out there. And that if someone is intent on committing an attack, it’s unlikely that a law will stop them.
Rep. Knight: Well, I a hundred percent disagree with them, and honestly, it’s a red herring. They always say that, that you’re punishing law abiding citizens or law abiding gun owners because the criminals don’t follow the law. But the fact of the matter is that when the general assembly or the legislative body of any state passes a law like this, it gives law enforcement tools necessary to make sure that the folks who might be inclined to do this sort of thing are not able to, that they can go after him. And more importantly, it’s not necessarily that the criminals won’t follow the law. If this bill is effective, and we believe it will be because it’s been in other states, it’s that they can’t get their hands on an assault weapon in the first place. If this bill becomes law, Massachusetts, which has an assault weapons ban, Rhode Island will join Massachusetts and Connecticut as places where you can’t buy one of these weapons. You can’t just go out and say, you know, like we’ve had mass shooters in other areas of the country decide very close in time to their crimes that they were gonna do their crimes and then go out and obtain an assault weapon either by purchasing one or by retrieving one from the closet of a relative. Our goal is to limit their ability to do that sort of thing, and in so doing, reduce the chances for, God forbid, a mass shooting here in Rhode Island.
Donnis: Let me stop you there because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Rhode Island has a low rate of gun violence, and most of it occurs via handguns. The people disproportionately affected by gun violence are people of color who live in poor parts of Providence. Why not focus on that?
Rep. Knight: It is not and/or it’s both/and, right? We should do everything we can to make sure that our communities are safe across the board, no matter what kind of crime is happening there. When it comes to gun violence, this particular bill is one of the last remaining recommendations from Governor Raimondo gun Task Force, yet to be put in place. And it’s just one piece of the puzzle. When we put it in place, it makes Rhode Island safer for all of us. No matter where we are, no matter where we live, safer from gun violence.
Donnis: One more question on this topic. Your colleague, the House Republican leader, Mike Chippendale, says, your bill amounts to a de facto gun registry since if it becomes law these so-called assault weapons, those categorized that way would be illegal as of July, 2026. And if a person did not get a voluntary compliance form, it would be very difficult for them to prove that their grandfathered-in gun is illegal. So how do you respond to that argument?
Rep. Knight: Well, I have a lot of respect for Leader Chippendale, but on this issue, he’s just flat out wrong. The bill was specifically designed so that if you are an existing, if you’re a person today who owns an assault weapon or will own one sometime before July 1st, 2026, then you don’t have to do anything to remain legal. You don’t have to tell anyone. You don’t have to, you don’t have to lift one single finger to remain legal. The voluntary certificate program is there to provide that added protection should they decide that they want it.
Donnis: So if I own an AR-15 and this bill becomes law in 2027, and I have a routine, you know, a police officer interacts with me, that they’re gonna take it at my word that the gun was bought before the effective date,
Rep. Knight: Every single day, the police officers in this state have thousands and thousands of interactions with the citizens across, and there’s just simply no way to characterize all of them. We trust those professionals when they come across evidence that they, you know, when they come across a situation that concerns them to do the right thing, to take steps to investigate, and if the facts warrant, then they can charge it, right? So how individual police departments are going to deal with the issue of, I’ve come across a weapon that meets the definition out in the wild. How do I make that determination? Is it a pre-ban weapon or a post-ban weapon? That is entirely up to them and the law gives them the tools to do that. And the law gives the law abiding gun owner coverage in two respects. Number one, they’re grandfathered. And number two, if they want to get that voluntary certificate possession, they can, but they don’t have to.
Donnis: We’re talking here with state representative Jason Knight, a Democrat from Barrington, and Representative Knight, are you going to run for Attorney General next year?
Rep. Knight: I really appreciate the question. I really do. I am looking at all the issues that would surround a statewide run. I’m very seriously considering it, and I’ll have a decision in the fall.
Donnis: We see how President Trump is going after many aspects of American culture, the media, the academia, the courts, law firms. I’m sure the latter part strikes home for a lawyer like yourself. Do you think Democrats are doing enough to stand up to President Trump and respond to him?
Rep. Knight: I think that the Democrats need to. Well, our time to shine will be in the next midterms election, right? Because elections are where the decisions about the future of the country are made. Right now, I think the job of Democrats is number one, articulate what they’re for and what they’re not for. And that should be easy enough. Number two, our Democrats need to highlight what this administration is doing that’s hurtful to the American public and Lord knows there’s plenty. And I think with those two things, by highlighting those issues to say this is why the Trump administration and their fellow travelers in Congress are not good for you and they’re not good for America, but they need to couple that with a message that resonates with the general public that we are here to build government that can not only do the responsible, the day-to-day governing, but also can provide opportunities where appropriate to improve the quality of life for all Americans.
Donnis: You represent the East Bay. Where are you on whether director Peter Alviti deserves to keep his job considering the problems with the Washington Bridge?
Rep. Knight: Definitely I am for a full and fair and complete examination of what exactly went wrong at the Department of Transportation that caused them to be asleep at the switch when the Washington Bridge failed. To the extent that Director Alviti is involved in that, I just don’t want to, you know, honestly, I’m not interested at this point in heads rolling or not rolling or symbolic firings or any of that stuff. I just want to know what happened. If it turns out that Director Alviti was asleep at the switch, like the rest of his staff, then he should go. But I’m not here for like a political, you know, I’m not here to make political points like that.
Donnis: Alright, whenever Alviti is asked about this stuff, he says, oh, the lawsuit, the lawsuit, I can’t talk because of the state’s lawsuit. Is that a satisfying answer to you?
Rep. Knight: It is not. You know, I understand that there’s a tendency for lawyers to be careful. I’m a lawyer, I’m careful when it comes to these sorts of things, but our political leadership needs to put the lawsuit in its correct place in the hierarchy of what the public deserves. And the public deserves to know what’s going on with their agencies that are spending millions and millions and millions of dollars on their behalf every year. The lawsuit’s gonna be the lawsuit, but there’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t talk about what’s going on. Do it carefully in such a way that it doesn’t you know, it doesn’t harm what’s going on in court. But frankly, the idea that just by talking about something is going to harm something in court, I find to be facetious.
Donnis: When do you expect the completion date to be for the new Westbound, Washington Bridge?
Rep. Knight: I’d like it to be as soon as possible. I understandwe’re gonna get our two bids to repair, or excuse me, replace the bridge today.
Donnis: Thank you very much for joining us, State Representative Jason Knight, Democrat of Barrington.
Rep. Knight: Ian, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for having me on.
+++The Trump administration is investigating Rhode Island, but Attorney General Peter Neronha doesn’t appear too concerned. You can read more about that in my Friday TGIF column, posting by 4 this afternoon on X, Threads, Bluesky, Facebook and at the publicsradio.org/TGIF. That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer is James Baumgartner. Our editor is Alex Nunes. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
