Little appetite for gun control

Rhode Island lawmakers approved one bill this session concerning gun control, a measure that strengthens the process to compel people convicted of domestic violence to relinquish their guns within 24 hours.

Left unapproved were a host of additional proposals, including one that would have established a set, statewide process for local officials to approve a concealed gun permit, rather than allowing local police chiefs discretion.

What never made it to the floor of either chamber for debate? Among other bills, a measure that would have allowed only peace officers to carry weapons on school grounds, preventing gun owners from bringing their weapons on campuses and a bill that would have made illegal the sale, transfer or possession of high-capacity or other magazines, designed to feed ammunition quickly to firearms.

The General Assembly met for its final week of deliberations days after a gunman armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle entered an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub and killed 49 people.

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Rep. Aaron Regunberg, D-Providence, who before the Orlando massacre sponsored the bill that would have banned magazines, said he was frustrated and disappointed. “When I introduced it, I knew it was going to be a tall order. But I figured we’d have to have this fight,” said the freshman legislator.

“In Rhode Island, we have ammunition limits for deer hunting,” he said. “We have an ammo limit for duck hunting. It’s appalling to me we can’t have a limit to protect our community members.”

It’s an argument that’s happened again and again in Rhode Island, with only limited action coming of it.

In December 2012, the mass shooting of 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., prompted a wave of nine bills in Rhode Island the following year. Of those, three were approved, and a task force created to examine the intersection of mental health and gun ownership.

Its work, carried out over four months, resulted in one new law. Approved in 2014, it requires that the name, date of birth and gender of anyone adjudicated through a Rhode Island court as being mentally ill and a danger to themselves, or the community, be forwarded to the national database used for screening applications for gun permits, according to the commission co-chairwoman, Rep. Deborah Ruggiero, D-Jamestown.

Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, in the days following the Orlando tragedy, said Rhode Island needed to do more to enact commonsense reforms.

“It is too easy for people to get their hands on military-style assault weapons, like the one used in this massacre, and this must change,” said Marie Aberger, a spokeswoman for the governor. “New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut have already banned assault weapons. It’s time for Rhode Island to do the same.” •

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