Rhode Island Gov. Signs Bill Giving Residents 6 Months to Surrender ‘High-Capacity’ Mags

Providence, RI - August 5: Governor Dan McKee speaks during a press conference at a vaccin
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
AWR Hawkins

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee (D) signed legislation this week banning ammunition magazines that hold more than ten rounds and giving current owners of said magazines six months to surrender them.

The Providence Journal reports that current owners of “high-capacity” magazines also have the option to modify them so they hold ten or fewer rounds, or “transfer them to people in states where they are legal.”

McKee also signed H.7457, which raises the legal age for gun purchases from 18 to 21 and raises the legal age for purchasing ammunition to 21 as well.

The NRA-ILA warned about H. 7457 when it was put forward, “[It] increases the age from 18 to 21 for the purchase of firearms and ammunition, rendering self-defense for an entire class of legal adults impossible. The 9th Circuit Court recently struck down a similar state law on the West Coast.”

Jeff Goyette owns a gun store in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and ABC 6 reports that he reacted to the magazine ban by pointing to dangers associated with trying to alter magazines to make them compliant.

In this Tuesday, June 27, 2017 photo, a semi-automatic hand gun is displayed with a 10 shot magazine, left, and a 15 shot magazine, right, at a gun store in Elk Grove, Calif. A federal judge is blocking a California law set to go into effect Saturday, July 1, that would have barred gun owners from possessing high-capacity ammunition magazines. San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said in ruling Thursday, June 29, that the law banning possession of magazines containing more than 10 bullets would have made criminals of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens who now own the magazines. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

In this Tuesday, June 27, 2017, photo, a semi-automatic handgun is displayed with a 10-shot magazine, left, and a 15-shot magazine, right, at a gun store in Elk Grove, CA. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Goyette said, “You have to make sure that each procedure that you do to any magazine is only going to accept the ten rounds. If you push [the spring] hard enough and it accepts 11 rounds, you’re a felon.”

He fears other gun store owners may not have all their magazines ready in six months and their lives will come crashing down: “All of a sudden, now my livelihood and my life has just been destroyed, because I had a 30-round magazine that I didn’t know I had. I don’t think they’re thinking about what they’re doing,”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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