Issue Position: Common Sense Gun Control

Issue Position

Guns in Schools

Rhode Island law prohibits firearms and other weapons on school grounds. Although there are appropriate exceptions for law enforcement personnel, people with concealed carry permits ("CCPs") are also exempted from the prohibition. This makes school grounds more legally open to firearms than airports, courthouses, and many other government buildings, all of which do not allow individuals with CCPs to enter with guns. Schools and our children should receive as much protection from unnecessary firearms as other public places and the people in them. Rhode Island should join the thirty-nine states that do not allow firearms in schools.

Law enforcement and security personnel are best prepared to protect our children and our schools, and will do a better job without armed civilians on site. While some training in handling firearms is required in order to obtain a CCP, the permit does not require training or testing of crisis management skills or protocols. There is no database of individuals with CCPs for police or school administrators or parents to check.

In the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions I introduced legislation to fix this. We had supportive resolutions from a large majority of RI school committees and several town councils. The NRA and the Second Amendment Coalition argued that an armed individual with a CCP could be helpful in an active shooter situation in a school. Representatives of the RI Police Chiefs' Association and the RI Attorney General's office thought otherwise; the professionals charged with protecting our children testified that an untrained and unidentified individual would make a crisis situation worse.

I will be dogged in my efforts to protect our children and our schools.

Domestic Abusers and Guns

Rhode Island law prohibits gun ownership or purchase by anyone convicted of domestic violence at the felony level. Fifteen states and Washington, DC extend this prohibition to individuals convicted of the lower misdemeanor level crime of domestic violence. These individuals have been proven in court to have poor impulse control and anger management issues. Domestic abusers have no business possessing firearms. The Second Amendment cannot be imagined to apply to individuals who abuse family members or intimate partners.

I will continue to work with my colleagues and the advocates for stronger protections for victims of domestic abuse.

High-Capacity Magazines

High-capacity magazines ("HCMs") carry multiple rounds, enabling shooters to fire again and again and again without stopping to reload. Without that pause to reload, people who have become targets do not have an opportunity to escape or time to disarm or subdue the shooter. HCMs were developed for the use of the military in war situations. RI hunting laws recognize the purpose and capacity of HCMs by limiting duck hunters to 3 rounds and deer hunters to 5 rounds.

We have seen far too much of the carnage possible when one person armed with HCMs attacks. Connecticut and Massachusetts, our neighbors, prohibit all HCMs. We have a battle on our hands just to limit magazine capacity in RI to 10 rounds. I will continue to work with community advocates and General Assembly colleagues towards this modest goal.

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