Music was provided by the bands Saints and Saviours, Select Band and Me Jane.

According to the Wear Orange website, “On January 21st, 2013, Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old high school student from the south side of Chicago, marched in President Obama’s 2nd inaugural parade. One week later, Hadiya was shot and killed.

“Orange is the color a group of Hadiya’s friends chose to wear to remember her life. They chose orange because that’s what hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others.”

Moms has been working tirelessly to pass a law that would disarm domestic abusers, H7575 and S2767. So far  these bills have not made it out of committee, despite the support of a clear majority of Rhode Islanders.

Jerry Belair, President of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) had hinted at the poll results during the recent rally against gun violence outside the State House, but yesterday the coalition released the full poll on Rhode Islander’s attitudes towards some common sense gun legislation currently under review by the General Assembly, and the numbers were staggering.

• 92% of Voters Support Restricting Possession of Guns by Domestic Violence Offenders
• 82% of Voters Support Restricting the Carrying of Concealed Guns in Elementary Schools
• 75% of Voters Support Limiting the Number of Bullets in Magazines to 10 Rounds

Remarkably, in Speaker Nicholas Mattiello‘s own district, the numbers for keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers is higher than the state wide pol, at 95%. Mattiello has an ‘A’ rating from the National Rifle association (NRA) and has been obstinately opposed to any proposed gun legislation. In the case of ethics reform, it took a disaster to change the Speaker’s mind. Is the Speaker waiting for another kind of disaster to occur before he gets behind common sense gun reform?

You can watch the full press conference below. The bills under consideration are: No Guns in Schools (H7243, S2761), Disarm Domestic Abusers (H7283, S2730, S2491) and the High Capacity Magazine Ban (H7199, S2835)

You can access the full poll here.

The Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) is backing three bills.

H7283 would take away guns from those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors.

“Rhode Island law prohibits gun ownership and possession by individuals convicted of a domestic violence felony,” says the RICAGV, “This law is weaker than federal law which prohibits gun ownership and possession by those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors. There is ample evidence that misdemeanor domestic violence offenders present an extreme risk to domestic partners when in possession of a firearm. Rhode Island should help protect the victims of domestic violence, not their abusers.”

H7243  would close a loophole that allows guns in schools and on school grounds.

“Concealed Carry Permit (CCP) holders can carry their weapons ‘everywhere’ including schools, but not in RI courthouses, airports and most government buildings,” says the RICAGV, “RI’s concealed carry law came into existence in 1990, long before Columbine and other school shootings, so schools were not exempted at that time. Currently, any CCP holder (staff, parent, visitor) can carry a firearm on school grounds including the school, surrounding property, parking lots, and after school sporting events and gatherings without knowledge of police or school officials.”

H7199, a high capacity magazine (HCM) ban, limits the number of rounds in a weapon to 10.

“Limiting HCMs to 10 rounds saves lives,” says the RICAGV, “Limiting rounds in a magazine requires that a shooter pause to change out the magazine. The shooter in Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 20 small children in less than 5 minutes with HCMs. Evidence reveals that several children escaped the schoolroom when his magazine jammed and he was forced to reload. Similarly, the shooter in the Gabby Gifford Tucson, AZ mass shooting was disarmed when he dropped his HCM clip during reloading. This enabled bystanders to subdue him saving lives.”

By analyzing the collective data, the report delivers some key findings:

• Domestic violence homicide is a violence against women issue: Of the 45 victims killed in intimate partner homicide incidents, 34 (76 percent) were women.
• Guns and domestic violence continue to be a deadly combination: Firearms made already violent situations more deadly. In every incident where a bystander was killed, a gun was used.
• Many of the intimate partner homicide incidents shared common elements that are known to indicate a heightened risk of homicide: In 14 of the 41 cases, there were indications that the perpetrator had been stalking the victim, 20 of the 41 perpetrators had been arrested for domestic violence in the past, and in 22 of the 41 cases there was evidence that the victim had already left or was planning to leave when the homicide occurred.

The report offers five recommendations:

• Rhode Island must continue to invest in coordinated community response to domestic violence and foster collaboration between law enforcement, courts and victim advocates.
• Rhode island must implement dangerousness assessment and screen all domestic violence criminal cases for lethality risk factors.
• Rhode Island must pass legislation to prohibit convicted domestic violence perpetrators and perpetrators subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns.
• Rhode Island must pass legislation to strengthen the state’s current laws against stalking and consistently enforce protective orders.
• Rhode Island must take steps to stop domestic violence before it happens in the first place and establish a fund that will support evidence-substantiated public health approaches to the primary prevention of domestic violence.

At the press conference to announce the report there were two posters bearing the names of all those murdered in Rhode Island in domestic violence incidents. Two women told heartbreaking stories about losing a family member to domestic violence. In the first, Jami Ouellette talks about her sister Stacy’s death at the hands of her abusive husband. The story is graphic and chilling.

Next, Ann Burke tells of her daughter’s death from intimate partner homicide. A health teacher, Burke has been instrumental in getting the state to teach teens about intimate partner violence, but she has been doing so without any funding since the program began. She co-founded the Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial Fund in he daughter’s memory.

Deborah DeBare, executive director of the RICADV walks us through the report.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin also spoke. He has been a strong advocate for the prevention of domestic violence.