WPRO Newsroom and the Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – When Rhode Island lawmakers adjourned for the year, they left without voting on high-profile proposals to ban semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Also left languishing were proposals to change the way handgun permits were awarded and legislation to require a per-gun registration fee.
Instead, lawmakers voted to make it a crime to carry a gun with a destroyed serial number and to increase jail time for carrying a firearm while committing a violent crime. They also created a task force to study the use of mental health records in gun background checks.
The more ambitious bills failed after gun owners gathered in large numbers at the Statehouse to protest. Supporters of the stronger gun control measures say the session was a lost opportunity.
