They Promised You Could Keep It. Now They Want It Back.

Rhode Island gun owners were told their firearms were safe under a grandfather clause. One word in a new bill would make them felons for keeping what they legally own.

Here's how the gun control playbook works.

Step one: propose an outright ban on possession. Face pushback. Agree to a compromise — a grandfather clause that lets current owners keep their firearms. Call it reasonable. Call it common ground. Pass the bill.

Step two: wait.

Step three: come back and eliminate the grandfather clause.

Rhode Island is on step three.

What They Passed Last Year

In June 2025, Governor Dan McKee signed the Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban Act — one of the most sweeping gun bills in state history. The law banned the future manufacture, sale, transfer, and purchase of certain semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. But in a concession to gun rights advocates who packed the State House, the final version included a grandfather clause: Rhode Islanders who already owned these firearms before July 1, 2026 could keep them. No registration. No surrender. No felony.

Gun owners were told they were protected.

They were told wrong.

One Word. Everything Changes.

House Bill H8073 adds a single word to the existing law: "possession."

That's it. One word. The bill would now prohibit anyone from manufacturing, selling, transferring, possessing, or purchasing a prohibited firearm.

The grandfather clause — the compromise, the promise — is gone.

Under H8073, Rhode Islanders who legally purchased these firearms have until December 31, 2026 to:

Sell the firearm to a federally licensed dealer
Transfer it to an eligible resident of another state
Or become a felon

After that deadline, simply owning a firearm they purchased legally — following every law, doing everything right — becomes a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

What the Sponsor Said

Rep. Teresa Tanzi, the bill's Democratic sponsor, argued the grandfather clause was a mistake from the start.

"If these weapons are too dangerous to be sold in Rhode Island, then we really should have addressed possession at the same time," she said.

Translation: the compromise was always temporary. The goal was always confiscation. The grandfather clause bought enough votes to get the ban passed — and now that it's on the books, the grandfather clause is in the way.

Brenda Jacob of the Rhode Island Revolver and Rifle Association put it plainly: "A lot of us have these firearms and now we're not going to be allowed to possess them and we're only going to have until December to get rid of them."

The Constitutional Problem

The Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause prohibits the government from seizing private property without just compensation. Rhode Island gun owners paid good money for these firearms. They followed the law. They accepted the grandfather clause in good faith.

H8073 doesn't compensate them. It doesn't reimburse them at market value. It tells them to sell — on whatever terms they can get — or face a decade in prison.

Tanzi dismissed the Takings concerns by arguing the state is exercising its "police power." Gun rights attorneys aren't buying it — and with Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins now granted cert at SCOTUS, the constitutional foundation for these bans is shakier than it's ever been.

The NRA-ILA Warning

The NRA-ILA isn't just watching Rhode Island. They're sounding the alarm for every state.

This is the incremental playbook in action — and it's coming to a state near you. Pass a ban. Promise a grandfather clause. Get the votes. Wait for the controversy to die down. Come back and eliminate the protection. Repeat.

Eleven states currently have assault weapons bans in place. Virginia, New Mexico, and Minnesota are actively moving them through legislatures right now. Every one of those bans came with promises. Every one of those promises is subject to the same step three.

What Missouri Has Right

In Missouri, we don't have assault weapons bans. We don't have magazine limits. We don't have mandatory storage laws. We don't have registration schemes.

What we have is a state government that has consistently respected the constitutional rights of its citizens — and a 2A community that stays engaged enough to keep it that way.

The lesson from Rhode Island isn't just legal. It's political. Gun owners who accept "reasonable compromises" from legislators who fundamentally oppose their rights are accepting promises written in disappearing ink.

The only protection that lasts is the one you never give up in the first place.

Stay current on 2A legal developments at mmguns.com/blog/downrange. Stop in and see us at 5578 Salt River Road, Saint Peters, MO 63376 | 636-387-1199

All purchases subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws. Missouri is a constitutional carry state; however, individual municipalities and political subdivisions retain the right to require a valid CCW permit to carry within their jurisdiction. Know your local laws before you carry.