Gun bills energize heated debates

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Gun rights activists thronged the Rhode Island State House Tuesday afternoon as lawmakers considered a full menu of gun control proposals, from raising the age for purchase of a rifle or shotgun to 21, to imposing bans on military-style weapons and keeping people with permits to carry concealed weapons from bringing guns onto school grounds.

Dressed in yellow T-shirts or wearing yellow ties, the activists showed their opposition by standing in corridors and by milling around the building's rotunda.

Only a fraction of the activists secured the small number of seats in the hearing room where the House Judiciary Committee took testimony through the evening from bill sponsors and others. The 18 gun-related legislative proposals on the committee’s agenda are familiar versions of bills that gun-control advocates have sought for years.

One was a prohibition of guns on school grounds, including the guns brought into schools by people with concealed carry permits, who are not required to notify school administrators under the law.

Heading into the hearing, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence, announced its support.

At the hearing, the proposal drew support from law enforcement organizations such as the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association and state police Capt. Derek Borek, who told the committee that anyone with a gun, who lacks proper police training, poses a danger to police at the scene of an active shooting.

Frank Saccocio, of the Rhode Island Second Amendment Coalition, called the bill a “horrible” proposal and one of the most dangerous bills in the package, saying it would draw active shooters to the state’s schools by creating a “gun free zone.”

A domestic violence perpetrator would know that his former victim, a young mother, would be forced to leave her gun at home and become vulnerable on trips to pick up children at school, said Saccocio.

He also argued that banning assault weapons would not reduce crime, citing government studies and data gathered over a 10-year period when federal law banned assault weapons.

But “The R.I. Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals wholeheartedly supports H7591 and S 2289, the ‘Safe Schools Act.’ Protecting the safety of our schools and staff is our primary concern,” said the AFT president, Frank Flynn. “In addition to limiting gun access on school grounds to certified law enforcement officers, we are adamantly opposed to any scheme which would introduce more firearms to schools by arming teachers or other staff members.”

Also quoted in the pre-hearing press release was forensic pathologist Dr. Priya Banerjee, who said: "Assault weapons maximize the capacity for injury by causing direct tissue injury, with high velocity bullet discharges resulting in larger temporary cavity injuries (caused by expansive pressure waves in the bullet's path), as well as possible bullet fragmentation.

“These weapons are suited for certain environments like military battle, but pose a public health hazard to the general public," the doctor said.

In advance of the hearing, the Rhode Island Firearm Owners League and other like-minded groups put out a "call to action" on Facebook asking gun-rights activists to come to the State House for a 3 p.m. rally.

"We're here to defeat the anti-gun agenda," said Brenda Jacob, who sits on the board of the Rhode Island Revolver and Rifle Association.

The organization gave out 800 T-shirts and estimated that 1,800 activists, including some children, had visited the State House in an effort to defeat the proposals.

Among them was Julie Driscoll, 44, of Bradford, a firearms safety instructor, who held a sign that sported gold and silver foil letters that said: "Amendment #2 shall not be infringed." The sign also boasted a foil image of a pistol that Driscoll had drawn by tracing the outline of her own Glock pistol.

"I'm hoping to Glock most of the proposed bills," she said.

The color of the gun-control movement, orange, seemed to be in short supply.

Harper Azevedo, a freshman at the Wheeler School in Providence, was one of the few in orange, blaze orange in her case. "It's important to show we are here and there are a lot of us," Azevedo said.

Among the stated goals of the protest: to "inform legislators of the storm that will be brewing in their districts should they allow these bills to move any further down the road," according to a firearm owners league posting.

"All Hands on Deck Alert!!!" said another Facebook post, on a page hosted by the Wallum Lake Rod and Gun Club. "We are facing magazine and a semi automatic firearms ban as well as legislation that would criminalize transportation of firearms in a vehicle, destroy all juniors programs.... It is of the utmost importance that everyone attends. We need you, your family, and your friends to flood the State House and sign in opposition to these heinous bills."

"These could very well be the most important hearings of our lives," the post says.

"Wear your yellow if you have it. Bring as many people as you can. Sign in opposition. Our future depends on it."

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