By M. CHARLES BAKST
Journal Staff Writer

In the initial interview, Damiani, 46, said it's important to carry a gun all the time. "The day you think you're not going to need it, that's the day you need it." For example, he wondered, "What if you're at the corner store to buy a quart of milk and some junkie comes in to hold the place up?" He said you wouldn't want to stand there looking like a "moron."

He said he took an oath to protect people. I noted he's no longer a cop. He said, "It doesn't make any difference." And, "If I am at Fleet Bank making a deposit and somebody comes in to hold the place up, you know I'm not going to stand there and watch it."

I asked what he'd do. "It depends on what he's armed with. I may have to sit back and take my shot when the opportunity is right or I may have to order him to drop the gun and if he doesn't I may have to kill him."

Again, I reminded him he is not a policeman. He said, "I spent my whole life as a policeman. Just because I had a heart attack and retired doesn't mean it's not in the blood anymore."

When the conversation resumed two days later, I asked Damiani what he thought could happen at the State House that might require him to use a gun. "I can't give you a scenario. Before Sept. 11, I would never have imagined that they would have crashed a plane into one of the skyscrapers in New York. I'm prepared."

He said a policeman doesn't make many friends and that he's run into work release prisoners at the State House that he put in jail. So part of his belief in guns is concern for his own safety. "I am not going to be a victim," he vowed.

In East Providence, where Damiani's assignments included serving as the department's sniper, he said he often drew a weapon but never had to fire it.

The Senate is Damiani's only job. He is, though, a part owner of Riverside Cleansers, a business started by his late parents.

Damiani is an ally of Bill Irons, who in late 2000 outmaneuvered Paul Kelly to become Senate majority leader. Now I asked Damiani about a tip I'd gotten: During that contest, he'd hidden in a tree, sporting night goggles and wearing a camouflage outfit, to observe who was going into a meeting of Kelly supporters.

I bore in. "Did you ever hide in a tree?" "With night goggles, looking to see who was going to a meeting of Kelly senators?" "Wearing camouflage?"

Damiani initially chafed at discussing what he called "covert operations." Finally, he said, "No camouflage."

But otherwise, he indicated, he had indeed undertaken such a mission outside a restaurant where the Kelly forces were gathering. "I wanted to know who was where," he said. And yes, "of course," he took notes.

He said Irons did not know of this in advance but that he talked to him about it later.

I wondered what Irons made of it. Irons said each legislator is "unique." He said intelligence-gathering is part of police work. "A lot of people retire from a job and dismiss it," Irons said. "It'll be in Michael's fiber until the day they lower him down."

Just for the record, I asked Irons, "It's not part of your style of leadership to station people in trees with night goggles?"

He said, "It is not, has not, and will not be."

M. Charles Bakst, The Journal's political columnist, can be reached by e-mail at mbakst@projo.com