The most significant gun control measure this session is going up for a vote. Will it pass?

Katherine Gregg, Providence Journal
Updated ·2 min read
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PROVIDENCE – Legislative negotiators have reached agreement on a proposed new law requiring the "safe storage" of firearms.

It is the most significant, and maybe the only, gun control measure state lawmakers are likely to pass this year. The latest House and Senate versions have been scheduled for a committee vote on Thursday.

Why it matters:

Grief-stricken family members have come to the State House year after year to plead for passage of some version of the bill, including the parents of Dillon Viens, the Johnston teenager who died in 2022 at the hands of a friend showing off his uncle's unlocked guns, and the South Kingstown councilwoman who lost her sister to suicide.

Passage of a safe-storage requirement akin to the law in Massachusetts was recommended by a 2018 gun safety task force. But gun rights owners were successful until this year in blocking its passage, which now appears close.

The House version did not word-for-word match the version the Senate passed earlier this year.

But an agreement was announced Wednesday afternoon by spokesmen for the House and Senate on the language which, in the end, entailed some relatively minor tweaks. For example, the words “gains possession of" were removed and replaced with the words, “obtains access to." The bills are now identical.

Both sides of the of gun legislation debate settle in the House lounge at the State House on March 13.
Both sides of the of gun legislation debate settle in the House lounge at the State House on March 13.

What does the latest version of the bill do?

Under current Rhode Island law, a gun owner is criminally liable only if a child – someone under 16 years old – gets access to and discharges a gun, causing injury to himself or herself or others.

Upon conviction, that individual could be fined up to $1,000 and/or imprisoned for up to a year.

  • The proposed new law requires the "safe storage" of a firearm in a locked container unless it is equipped with a "tamper-resistant mechanical lock" or device that makes the firearm "inoperable by any person other than the owner."

Addressing concerns raised by gun-owners, the storage requirement would not apply to a firearm that is "being carried ... or can be readily carried by a lawfully authorized user."

Fines for violations would range from:

  • $250 for a first offense.

  • Up to $500 and imprisonment for up to six months for repeat offenses.

  • The potential penalty doubles for anyone "who knows or reasonably should know'' that someone under age 18 or a person prohibited by law from buying or possessing a gun was likely to gain access.

  • It goes up to $5,000 and/or five years in prison if that gun was used to commit a crime or cause injury.

Both the House and Senate bills would create exceptions for certain hypothetical cases where, for example, someone barred from having a gun somehow "obtains or obtains and discharges the firearm in a lawful act of self-defense or defense of another person."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI's safe storage gun control bill is heading for a vote. What to know.