PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo is signing an executive order establishing a so-called “red flag” policy to prevent people from having guns if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Raimondo plans to sign it Monday. She said this month’s shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, has renewed the urgency once again for states to act to prevent gun violence. Seventeen people were killed.
In her weekly video message , Raimondo said she has had “enough.”
“Let’s protect Rhode Islanders and send a signal to the rest of the country that it is possible to fight the NRA and win,” she said Saturday.
Rhode Island’s legislature also plans to consider a bill requiring people to surrender their firearms and prohibit them from buying new ones, if a judge determines they pose an imminent danger.
Raimondo says that legislation is needed, in addition to the executive order, to keep protections in place permanently. Rhode Island currently allows authorities to take away people’s guns in domestic violence cases.
Other bills have been introduced to ban devices in Rhode Island that can make a semi-automatic rifle mimic the firing action of a fully automatic weapon.
Democratic state Sen. James Seveney says the state needs to ban “bump stocks” on semi-automatic firearms, calling them “horrific devices.”
Authorities say Stephen Paddock used a bump stock while firing on concert-goers from his Las Vegas hotel room Oct. 1.
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