May 19 Special Meeting On Second Amendment Rights
UPDATE: This meeting was moved from the Charlestown Elementary School to the Meadowbrook Inn
The “Upcoming Meetings” section of agendas for the last two town council meetings have included a “Town Council Special Meeting” for May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Meadow Brook Inn, 168 Carolina Back Road, Charlestown.
All other upcoming meetings have an explanation of the purpose of the meeting, but this scheduled meeting, at a location usually reserved for large crowds, appeared to have no purpose at all.
At the April, 28 meeting, when asked what the meeting was about, Councilor Carney stated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss “a Second Amendment resolution in support of Second Amendment rights.” It’s unknown why this information wasn’t included in the last two agendas, nor in the meeting announcements.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
On April 8, RI Gun Owners, a firearm advocacy group, listed Charlestown as one of ten Rhode Island towns that had or would be passing resolutions in opposition to gun control legislation. Despite not being listed on the Town Council’s descriptions of upcoming meetings, the purpose of Charlestown’s May 19 meeting appears to have already been well known to at least one statewide organization.
This year Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee has proposed an assault weapons ban, and the state legislature introduced House Bill 5436 with the same purpose. The various communities that are passing resolutions in support of the right to keep and bear assault weapons are acting in response to these legislative proposals.
May 18, 2025 @ 9:29 am
If the state can tell us how many and what kind of houses we have to build I would assume they can tell us what kind of guns we are allowed to own. We have plenty if not too many gun regulations as it is. Enforce existing regulations and protect our 2nd amendment rights. When they call for a militia you’re not going to be much use with no gun or a bb gun in 2025. Legal gun owners are very careful and law abiding. Criminality and mental health are the issues our government should be addressing in my opinion.
May 13, 2025 @ 6:04 pm
Thank you for this article. The 2nd Amendment was specifically written to prevent a tyrannical government from ever taking over a country. Presently we are living in a time where there is a political presence/faction that is trying to dismantle the U.S. Constitution. This faction already owns the national news media, and presently political propaganda is sold to the public as “news”!!
May 4, 2025 @ 10:51 am
Can I just state the obvious? When the second AMMENDMENT was written, you had a rifle that fired one shot before having to be reloaded.
An assault weapons ban does not take away anyone’s right to bear arms. It helps protect our children and citizens’ right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from someone with mental health issyes having a bad day and hell bent on mass murder.
May 4, 2025 @ 5:34 pm
I should have clarified – meant no disrespect to anyone with “ mental health issues” but it is just always what gets blamed after mass murders with assault weapons, rather than the military grade weapons themselves.
Of course not all of us that may have “ mental health issues” are dangerous!
And A “ militia” is our military, and I believe only those in our military or specialized police ERT’s should be allowed to carry them. You wouldn’t do surgery if you’re not a surgeon. You wouldn’t build a house if you’re not a carpenter, etc etc.
May 13, 2025 @ 4:41 pm
Shouldn’t SCOTUS originalists
interpretation of the Second
Amendment’s right to bear arms limit those arms to those in common use 200 years ago.
It DOES.
The Kalthoff Repeating rifle held magazines up to a 30 round capacity, and could fire at a rate of over 30 rounds per minute. It was invented in 1630. Semi-automatic and fully-automatic long-arms existed back then. Private citizens even owned their own artillery pieces, and well-armed sailing vessels.
The Girandoni rifle has a
20 round magazine, fires a .46
caliber projectile and has an
effective range of 150 yards.
It was developed in 1779..
..12 Years before the Second
Amendment was ratified.
The Puckle machine gun was created in 1718, 73 years before the Second Amendment. It was a hand cranked 2″ bore cannon with an interchangeable rotary magazine. When one was being fired, another was being reloaded.
Tell me again how the founding
fathers were only talking about single shot muskets.
“When any nation mistrusts its citizens with guns, it is sending a clear message. It no longer trusts its citizens because such a government has evil plans.
~ George Washington~
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is a instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
~Patrick Henry~
This year will go down in history. For
the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!”
~Adolph Hitler, 1935, on The
Weapons Act of Nazi Germany which became the Gun Control Act of 1968 because Senator Tom Dodd from Connecticut brought it back to the USA, had the Library of Congress translate it into English and got it passed into law.
So, Gun control is not only fascist, it is racist as well. Gun control laws were passed in 1865 after the Civil War to protect the newly formed KKK who didn’t want the former slaves from defending themselves when the KKK came to kill and burn their houses down to keep them in line. The KKK were the first domestic terrorists.
The Second Amendment does not “grant” us the Right to bear arms. The Second Amendment denies the government the authority to infringe upon our rights to keep and bear arms.
May 5, 2025 @ 9:33 am
First and foremost you apparently do not appreciate the benefits of the 2nd Amendment. Secondly you really do not have an understanding of firearms, and third I suspect that you have not read what our Governor has proposed in his ” ban on assault weapons”! Also “assault weapons” are words put together by politicians with a political agenda. If the governor’s “assault weapon” ban were to pass today, as it has been proposed, it is so encompassing that it would make most firearms a felony to own. I am talking about firearms used for hunting and recreational purposes, including some firearms that are single-shot firearms Without knowing you, I can assure you and anyone who is reading this reply, that you enforce/enjoy all of the protections within the Amendments that the U.S. Bill of Rights affords you. For yourself, I am talking expressly the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Amendments. However…”you feel” that the protections provided/afforded by the 2nd. Amendment should be infringed upon due to “your” beliefs. Which based upon your reply is totally uninformed, and solely based upon the propaganda that is being fed to the public by a press, a press that is biased and has its own political agenda. I can also guarantee you that if the founders of the Bill of Rights had at their disposal what you call “assault weapons” at the time of its inception, the founders certainly would have included these weapons when the Bill of Rights was written. The Bill of Rights was to prevent tyranny within our country. Check your history, Hitler disarmed countries before he took possession of the country. He also took control over public communications meaning the news media and the press. Could this be where this country is heading?
And…yes individuals with mental health issues do manage to get access to firearms, and yes they do use them. People with evil intentions also get access to firearms, and yes they too use them. What many politicians to not tell you, or may not know, is that with “BASIC HUMAN BEHAVIOR” there is a seven-percent (7%) deviant population; 7%!. This number is with the exception of a few South Sea civilizations. Included in this deviant population are people who would steal a piece of gum, to speeding in a motor vehicle, to serial killers and mass shooters. Our “basic” human population is hard-wired and there is nothing that anyone can do to prevent these people from doing these acts of violence. Firearms do not kill people, people kill people. On April 19th, 1995 Timothy McVeigh performed the most deadliest act of mass killing in the United States when he bombed the Alfred Murray Federal building in Oklahoma with fertilizer and diesel fuel. One-hundred-and-sixty-eight people were killed, including nineteen babies. Do you believe that banning fertilizer and banning diesel fuel would have prevented this evil, hatred act? This act of violence was carried out on the anniversary of another act of violence, the Waco incident in Texas. How about the mass casualties in New York and New Orleans carried out by motor vehicles. How about the mass casualties that are being carried out in other countries where the possession of “any” firearm is illegal.
The 2nd Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Shall not be infringed is a protection that I refuse to give up and will not stop supporting. And…I also appreciate and support the “entire” Bill of Rights and what it stands for; not just the 2nd Amendment. If we the citizens of this country give up the 1st and the 2nd Amendments, then the rest of the Bill of Rights be unenforceable, and the tyranny of a corrupt government will take over our country! Our country will be ruled and run under a totalitarianism form of government. And…if you really made a close assessment of where our government stands today, we really are not too far from this rule of government today.
May 5, 2025 @ 1:07 pm
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May 5, 2025 @ 6:49 pm
Thank you. I understand
May 4, 2025 @ 9:00 am
We will be there to defend our 2A rights!
May 4, 2025 @ 11:37 am
Agreed. We have no need for assault guns on these times.
May 14, 2025 @ 1:24 pm
K. turgeon, no one is allowed to own machine guns in Rhode Island and haven’t been for a very long time. The term “assault weapons” only applies to full auto machine guns. BTW, some other states do allow the private ownership of machine guns and not one legally owned machine gun has been used in a crime. Apply to the BATF, pay $200 and wait 4 to 6 months for your permit. Then you need to find someone wiling to sell their pre 1986 machine gun which will cost you anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 depending on rarity. You will then need to move to a Second Amendment friendly state in order to accept delivery at the Class III FFL gun store of your choice. Easy………
May 14, 2025 @ 9:09 pm
Our newly elected town council has opted to hold a meeting to discuss gun rights at an elementary school. This is gross negligence and unacceptable. There are people with court orders who are not allowed to step foot near an elementary, but sure let’s invite every pro gun activist on the internet to come inside charlestown elementary! If you are not outraged you are not paying attention.