[Politics] McKee signs 3 gun-control bills into law

[FazzNoth]

Dan McKee signed three gun-control bills –including one that will prohibit the possession of gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition –  into law on Tuesday afternoon, in a room packed with local and national advocates.

The new  law limiting magazine size gives current owners of high-capacity magazines six months to modify them, surrender them to police or transfer them to people in states where they are legal. After that, anyone still in possession of an outlawed magazine could face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to $5,000. 

 

he other measures will raise the age to buy a firearm or ammunition from 18 to 21, and prohibit people from openly carrying loaded rifles and shotguns in public.

Among those who attended the State House signing ceremony was Shannon Watts, founder of the gun-control advocacy group Moms Demand Action.

She lauded the efforts of the Rhodw Island lawmakers who sheperded the bills to this point.and "on top of it all... went toe to toe with gun extremists."

"But as I always say: 'don't mess with a mom'," she said to cheers from the standing room only crowd in the State Room. .

""Elected officials are finally realizing it is more a political liability to oppose gun-safety legislation than to support it, and that's because gunp-safety isn't just good policy, it is good politics.

"What you have done in Rhode Island will save so many lives."

As she and then McKee and the sponsors of the three bills spoke, less than a dozen protesters shouted their disapproval up from the rotunda, with one carrying a sign that said: "We will not comply." 

 

The passage by House and Senate majorities last week followed a number of recent instances of gun violence across the country, including mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, as well as frequent reports of gun violence in Rhode Island.

Moms Demand Action is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that says it has "over eight million supporters ... more than 375,000 donors ... [and a] chapter in every state."

Pro-gun advocates have already vowed to file a legal challenge soon after the new laws are signed.

Lawyers at a local firm laid out the potential grounds for the legal challenge in a letter to lawmakers that described the newly approved ban on high-capacity magazines, without compensation, as an illegal "taking" under the U.S. Constitution.

 

The warning letter from Providence-based Kelly, Souza, & Parmenter P.C. did not, however, deter majorities in the House and Senate from approving the legislation that would make Rhode Island the 11th state plus the District of Columbia to place a size limit on firearm magazines.

And when asked about the likelihood of a legal challenge, a spokesman for  Attorney General Peter Neronha told The Journal: "Should the state be sued here, we are confident we will be able to defend this law."

On Tuesday, R.I. Rifle and Revolver Association Lobbyist Brenda Jacob reiterated her group's objections to the legislation that will "make law-abiding citizens felons within the next 180 days.

"The political maneuvering that occurred to get these bills passed and the unprecedented shift away from the committee process should raise alarm bells for all Rhode Islanders."

"We will remember in November," she wrote in an email. "The voice of the people will not continue to be ignored.

Watts was here in 2019. She joined then-Gov. Gina Raimondo, Neronha and then-Central Falls Mayor James Diossa at a news conference to urge passage of a packet of “common-sense gun bills” that were not moving, despite a significant level of support in the Senate. Among them: a proposed assault weapons ban, which has still not passed, and the 10-round limit on high-capacity magazines that did  not pass until last week.

The hours-long House Judiciary hearing on gun-legislation that year included a plea from Erica Keuter of East Greenwich, who survived the massacre by a lone gunman that left 58 concert-goers dead and hundreds more injured in Las Vegas in October 2017. 

“I heard screaming and crying, smelled gun powder and saw the carnage that one person can do with these firearms, all of which were legally owned,’’ she told the lawmakers. “If you take one thing away from my experience, it’s that gun violence can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mckee-signs-3-gun-control-bills-into-law/ar-AAYHZBH?ocid=BingNewsSearch