| Jason Knight (D) has represented District 67 in Barrington and Warren since first being elected in November 2016. He was named a Deputy Majority Leader in January 2021. Representative Knight is the second vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is a member of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the House State Government and Elections Committee.
Representative Knight has sponsored and cosponsored numerous measures for firearms safety. He was the sponsor of the law passed in 2021 to ban "straw purchases" the buying or procuring weapons on behalf of someone who is legally prohibited from possessing them. He cosponsored the law prohibiting high-capacity gun magazines, as well as laws requiring safe storage of firearms, banning bump stocks and modifications to make semi-automatic weapons work like fully automatic weapons, and ensuring gun sales applications are reviewed by the police in the purchaser's own community.
He has sponsored numerous efforts for criminal justice reform, including a 2022 law that eliminated court fees for many Rhode Islanders to prevent fees from becoming a stumbling block that results in re-incarceration. Representative Knight also sponsored a law that allowed more people to have their arrests records sealed when they've been acquitted or exonerated, and waived a $100 fee for all expungements.
In 2024, he sponsored a law that will provide nursing home patients the right to have cameras installed in their rooms if they wish. Another law he sponsored enables cities and towns to establish programs to offer tax credits to property owners age 60 and over in exchange for volunteer hours. In his first term in the House, he enacted legislation allowing churches and religious organizations to require national criminal background checks for employees and volunteers working with children. He has cosponsored many other bills for fair elections laws, stronger environmental protections, and economic justice.
Representative Knight served eight years in the United States Navy as an enlisted nuclear power operator. He taught at the Naval Nuclear Power Prototype facility at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory before completing three and a half years of service on the USS Albuquerque.
Representative Knight received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emerson College and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk Law School. He was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar and worked for the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General as a special assistant attorney general from 2006 to 2010.
Representative Knight is now a self-employed attorney and a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees at Temple Habonim in Barrington and previously served on the board of directors of Arts Alive!
Representative Knight lives in Barrington with his wife Nicole. They have two children. He was born on October 28, 1969. |