The hottest item at Surplus Provisions in Warwick is a yellow T-shirt featuring a snake wrapped around an anchor over the words “DON’T TREAD ON ME.”
Tonya Pereira, who co-owns the military surplus shop with her husband Frank, said she’s sold well over a couple of hundred Gadsden flag-inspired shirts. They’ve even sold out, according to the store’s Facebook page.
“This is probably one of the best turnouts we’ve ever seen,” Pereira said in an interview Tuesday.
Pereira’s hope is that yellow shirts will overtake the number of orange and red shirts gun safety advocates will wear inside the House Lounge Wednesday afternoon when the chamber’s Committee on Judiciary holds a hearing on Democrats’ latest push to ban assault-style weapons in Rhode Island. The proposal has been endorsed by Gov. Dan McKee and the state’s other general office holders.
The bill sponsored by Rep. Jason Knight, a Barrington Democrat, would ban the manufacture and sale of assault-style weapons starting Jan. 1, 2026. Such weapons are defined based on their function and features, such as ability to accept detachable magazines and stocks, bayonet mount, and barrel shrouds.
Under the bill, those who violate the ban would face up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000 and forfeiture of the weapon. Assault-style weapons acquired ahead of the proposed ban would be exempt and registered with their owners’ local police department or the Rhode Island State Police.
Knight’s language mirrors the same proposal McKee has put in his recommended fiscal year 2026 budget as part of his latest push to get a ban passed.
But Pereira said the features the state is looking to ban on firearms are integral to modern rifles. One example is the shroud, which Pereira said keeps peoples’ hands from burning while a gun is being fired.
“This would ban so many things that were put into place for safety,” she said. “This is the worst bill I’ve ever seen.”
Pereira is not alone in her opinion. As of Tuesday afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee has received nearly 480 letters on the proposed ban — the majority opposed to Knight’s legislation, among other firearms-related bills up for consideration Wednesday.
Knight could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
But some writers have expressed their support for Knight’s bill. They include Zoe Weissman of Providence, who knows firsthand how traumatic assault weapons can be. She was outside the Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School the day a gunman killed 17 students in Parkland Florida in 2018, she wrote.
At the time Weissman was 12 years old. Now she is a freshman at Brown University and says she continues to experience paranoia while in public and has developed post-traumatic stress disorder because of the mass shooting.
Reached for comment, Weissman said she was on spring break and would not be at the State House Wednesday.
“Gun violence does not just physically maim its direct victims: it destroys the psyches of all those in its vicinity,” Weissman wrote in her testimony.
Advocates who belong to Moms Demand Action will be wearing red shirts at Wednesday’s hearing, while members of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence will be clad in orange.
Melissa Carden, the coalition’s executive director, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Tony Morettini, legislative chapter lead for Moms Demand Action, declined to speculate how many gun safety advocates will turn out at the State House.
“Obviously, I would like a really strong showing,” Morettini said. “But really the only numbers that matter are the votes we get in committee and votes on the floor.”
Companion legislation is sponsored in the Senate by Lou DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat.
Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican, plans to oppose the measure.
“Minority Leader de la Cruz hears from constituents every day who are opposed to this legislation that will effectively criminalize almost all firearms in production while failing to address criminal violence in any way,” Senate Minority Office spokesperson Lee Ann Sennick said in an email.
This story was originally reported and published by the Rhode Island Current.
