Hunting and Fishing Off-season 1/14/2022 – Jeff Gross

By Jeff Gross, contributing writer

A great way to start this year off is to get more involved in the matters you have a problem with. I heard and saw many complaints in 2021. Some had very legitimate concerns. Often, these issues were being discussed at the RI legislature, and might even have evolved into bills. Doing one’s civil duty to get involved in that process, isn’t as easy as it sounds. The following tutorial will give you an idea on how to navigate the state legislative website. You will have up to the minute access to any, and all legislative bills working their way through the RI State House.

I will use the firearms category as an example, as most of the high ranking state house personnel (House Speaker and Senate President, excluded) are looking to make a criminal out of the Grandma in the header photo, here.

For those of you who cherish the Constitution and enjoy the outdoors by target shooting, hunting, fishing, hiking, boating, kayaking, bird watching or a slew of other outdoor activities, you will find this navigation tool helpful.

The firearms category was used as this past Monday the bills to make Grandma a criminal were introduced. This Grandma has an 83-year clean record. She is a volunteer for many charities including the Veterans Rehab facility in Providence, Faith Fellowship Church Food Pantry in West Greenwich, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, just to name a few. Yet many in our Rhode Island government want to make a criminal out of Grandma!  If the Government will do this to her, then your outdoor sports and activities can be banned or controlled as well. For those of us who use hunting dogs, many bad anti-hunting dog bills came up in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Instead of talking about the problem, get involved!  Do not be intimidated; education is power. So, learn how to follow the bills you may be interested in, and how you can impact the legislative process.

Right now, I am embroiled in a battle to bring a Second Amendment case to SCOTUS against the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The RI legislature may have given me the tools I need.

1) Click on this link or google it or copy and paste in your address bar:

https://www.rilegislature.gov/pages/legislation.aspx

2) Click on bill status/history at top of page under legislative session information.

3) Choose session year. (usually, current year 2022) and go down to category, and click on category arrow on right of empty blank and then scroll down in the choices to “Firearms” or “Fish and Wildlife” or whatever other category you want to view. There are a wide range of topics to sort out what one may interested in.

4) Hit enter to select your choice and all House and Senate bills under that category will come up. There is a wealth of information such as sponsors, Co- Sponsors etc. It will also say when it is going for a vote in committee and or if the bill is going to a floor vote.

5) Now if your rep or senator says they never voted for a bill or they voted for an amended bill, that statement can be fact checked by going to the bill year, seeing when the bill was brought to the floor and going back to the main legislative session page and click on floor votes by date.

6) Under floor votes click on the particular day and then scroll to the bill number and click on bill number.

7) The vote will show the final outcome of voting for that particular bill after 24 hours. Some RI politicians have been known to switch their vote at 3 am after everyone has gone home after the vote that night.

Contact me if you have any questions. After you have surfed it a couple of times it will become second nature.

Here’s a sample of the type of info – and links you will find:

Condition: {Session Year: 2022} {Category: Firearms}

House Bill No. 6614

(Attorney General/General Treasurer/Governor/Secretary of State)

BY  Caldwell, Knight, Blazejewski, Kazarian, Craven, McNamara, Felix, Ajello, McEntee, Williams

ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES — LARGE CAPACITY FEEDING DEVICE BAN OF 2022 (Same as 21H-5554 –Makes it a felony for an individual to possess any semi-automatic firearm magazine which is capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Violation is punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine of up to $5,000.){LC3478/1}01/06/2022 Introduced, referred to House Judiciary

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House Bill No. 6615

(Attorney General/General Treasurer/Governor/Secretary of State)

BY  Caldwell, Knight, Blazejewski, Kazarian, Craven, McNamara, Batista, Williams, Amore, Giraldo

ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES — ASSAULT WEAPONS (Same as 21H-5556 –Bans the possession, sale, and transfer of assault weapons. Possession of assault weapons owned on the effective date of this act would be “grandfathered” subject to certain registration provisions.){LC3479/1}01/06/2022 Introduced, referred to House Judiciary

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House Bill No. 6616

BY  Caldwell, McEntee, Batista, Knight, Cortvriend, Cassar, Amore, Craven, Fogarty, Ajello

ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES — WEAPONS (Same as 21H-6482 — Prohibits the sale or transfer of ammunition unless the purchaser successfully undergoes a background check.){LC3480/1}01/06/2022 Introduced, referred to House Judiciary

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Jeffrey “Jeff” Gross spent 21 years as an Analytical Chemist at the USCG R&D Center in Groton, Connecticut, Woods Hole Laboratories, and Helix Technologies. Changing careers is a “great learning experience for everyone”, Jeff says, and I’m an avid outdoorsman and conservationist, a student of the sciences, and the world. The US holds too many wonders not to take a chance and explore them”.

Jeff is the Model Train and Railroad entrepreneur. Proud Golden Retriever owner. Ultra strong Second Amendment Advocate and Constitutionalist. “Determined seeker of the truth”. 

Jeff is a RIFGPA Legislative and Legal Officer, Freshwater Chairman, NRA Liaison.

His subjects include Outdoors, Second Amendment, Model Railroading, and Whimsical.

He can be reached at: [email protected]