Detractors say the bill had many flaws, while supporters denounce the Judiciary Committee vote as an insult to victims.

08:02 AM EDT on Friday, June 25, 2004

BY LIZ ANDERSON, SCOTT MAYEROWITZ, ED FITZPATRICK and KATHERINE GREGG
Journal Staff Writers

Journal photo / Connie Grosch Jose Garcia of Providence holds a silhouette of a domestic violence murder victim outside the Senate chamber yesterday. Advocates held the silhouettes to show support for a bill to take away guns from people with domestic violence restraining orders.

PROVIDENCE -- Advocates chanted "shame, shame, shame" yesterday after a deadlocked Senate Judiciary Committee killed a pair of bills to require that people subject to domestic violence restraining orders surrender their guns.

"Let the deaths of any woman be on all of your heads!" yelled the furious sponsor, Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, at her colleagues.

"This is ridiculous, and I am ashamed to be a member of this Senate," she told reporters a moment later. "These were very simple bills. We were not trying to take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. We were trying to take guns out of the hands of domestic batterers; it was that simple."

"It's a disgrace," said Rep. Joanne Giannini, D-Providence. She had won House passage earlier this spring of near-identical bills, which would only apply to permanent restraining orders issued by a judge after a hearing where both sides could present arguments.

"They had no intention of passing these bills," Giannini said.

Perry Wheeler, lobbyist for the Rhode Island State Rifle & Revolver Association, the local NRA affiliate, had a different take on the defeat of measures he had argued had a host of flaws.

"It's just a matter of common sense prevailing over emotionalism," he said.

The midday committee vote provided some moments of high drama on a day that saw the House and the Senate plow through scores of bills, hoping to finish their work in time to adjourn tonight.

Members of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence and other groups, like Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships, had seen a hopeful sign when the Judiciary Committee announced it would take up Goodwin's bills, which had languished since a hearing in April.

They even added two yes votes to the committee's ranks when Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, and Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly, exercised their right to sit in.

Still, the committee deadlocked 5-5 on a series of votes, including Paiva Weed's attempt to amend the bills to match the ones that cleared the House. The vote did not change following a proposal by Sen. John Revens Jr., D-Warwick, to remove what some senators had stated as their chief objection: an exemption that would allow law enforcement officers to continue to carry guns when on duty.

Paiva Weed tried unsuccessfully to get Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey, D-Warwick, to hold off on voting until Sen. John F. McBurney III, D-Pawtucket, could arrive. McBurney later confirmed he would have supported the bills, but said he had been at a meeting with a legal client that he could not reschedule. Senate President Joseph Montalbano, D-North Providence, also could have joined the committee to vote, but did not.

Later, Deborah DeBare, director of the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said the vote on the amendment to remove the police exemption showed that the issue was a "bogus red herring" raised by opponents.

"This is just an absolute outrage and disgusting," she said. "To me it shows a complete lack of interest in protecting victims of domestic violence in Rhode Island. This is a simple tool to protect victims, and they just said no."

The votes against the bill came from McCaffrey, Joseph Polisena, D-Johnston, Michael Damiani, D-East Providence, Leonidas Raptakis, D-Coventry, and Leo Blais, R-Coventry. In addition to Paiva Weed and Algiere, the yes votes were Revens, Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, and Frank Caprio, D-Providence.

The advocates, carrying red, wooden silhouettes representing domestic violence victims, decamped to the hallway outside Montalbano's office, where they chanted: "Shame on those who value guns over lives," and "We will not go away." ("But we will vote you out of office!" one called out.)

Raptakis said later that he believed "both sides should have sat down and tried to alleviate their differences." Blais and Polisena echoed those comments; Polisena said he had offered to try to negotiate a compromise bill for next year.

Blais said the bill had "a whole plethora of problems," including questions about what it would cost for a person to store guns and due process issues.

When the Senate convened, a still-smarting Goodwin rose and introduced many of the advocates who were now seated in the gallery. "These people here were victims -- victims of our Senate Judiciary Committee," she said.

By 2:11 p.m., the Web site of the Rhode Island chapter of the Citizens Rights Action League, a gun-rights group, had already been updated with news of the vote and reports of "some really childish temper tantrums" that followed. "There were some women -- members of the House and Senate -- literally screaming," it said. The message also called on members to call and write the senators who voted against the bills to thank them for their support.

Later, Paiva Weed said, "Clearly, the NRA is a strong influence, lobbying influence in this building."

But, she added, "We received a lot of phone calls on both sides of that issue."

"I've been a family court attorney for 20 years," Paiva Weed said. "I believe that the legislation that came out of the House -- that allowed judicial discretion, and the opportunity for the guns to be only taken away in the most extreme, extreme situations -- was an excellent compromise that addressed any concerns that anyone had."

The Senate began its day by voting to confirm Corinne Calise Russo, the longtime director of the North Providence senior center, as the new director of elderly affairs.

"I couldn't think of a better person serving as director," Montalbano said just before the unanimous vote.

Racial profiling

The House voted 55-6 for a bill that would ban racial profiling in traffic stops by state and local police and require law enforcement agencies to collect traffic-stop data. The vote came one day after the Senate passed an identical bill, and supporters say they expect the legislation to become law.

"This is one of the greatest civil-rights bills the state of Rhode Island has ever seen," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Joseph S. Almeida, D-Providence.

Racial profiling refers to police stopping and searching vehicles because of the race of their drivers rather than their driving. Minority group members say it happens all the time, while the police have generally denied the practice exists.

The legislation emerged from committees in both the House and the Senate after law enforcement and civil-rights groups said they had found common ground.

Sunday liquor sales

The Senate gave final approval to a bill that would allow liquor stores to open on Sundays from noon to 6 p.m., sending the bill to the governor. The state budget assumes an estimated $1 million more in sales tax revenue from this business.

Housing bill to governor

The House took a final vote on the compromise "affordable housing" bill; it goes next to the governor. The bill gives communities the power to decide when to relax local rules to encourage lower-cost housing and gives the state the right to set goals for communities and review their plans.

Raising cap for retirees

State college retirees and other retired teachers would be able to return to work part time, earning up to $15,000, without jeopardizing their pensions under a compromise reached yesterday between the House and the Senate. The current cap is $12,000. The House sent its legislation to the Senate for final approval.

Ban on pub crawls

The House approved a bill to allow cities and towns to adopt ordinances to ban so-called "pub crawls," at which partygoers move from one bar to the next. The bill, which goes to the Senate, was sponsored by Rep. Paul Crowley, D-Newport, after a Fairfield University student was struck and killed by a bus carrying URI students home from a student-organized event last month.

Health-care reform

Both the House and the Senate continued to advance a package of health-care reform bills, including bills to create the position of state insurance commissioner.

Lobbying rules

The Senate passed two bills that would require those who lobby the executive branch to make the same public disclosures of their activities as legislative lobbyists. The measures, sponsored by Paiva Weed and Rep. Fausto Anguilla, D-Bristol, now go to Carcieri's desk.