RI Congressman Introduces Trio of Gun Control Bills

Two weeks after the mass-killing of worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. Congressman David N. Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, has introduced three bills to restrict access to guns.

Cicilline, a founding member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns when he was mayor of the state’s capital city, Providence, said that “We have to do more as a country to address our problem with gun violence - on average, 30 Americans are killed each day with a gun. This just doesn’t happen in other developed countries.”

The bills would limit access to guns for children, criminals and people with “serious mental illness,” the congressman said.

The End Purchase of Firearms by Dangerous Individuals Act would “require that all 50 states provide information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System on individuals who are committed to a mental institution or who express a threat of violence to a mental health professional,” according to a release from the congressman’s press office.

The proposal is co-sponsored by Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-NM) and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).

The Fire Sale Loophole Closing Act (H.R. 2916) would “end the practice by which gun dealers who lose their license can convert their entire inventory to a “personal inventory” in order to liquidate it without conducting background checks on their customers. The bill is co-sponsored by 34 of Cicilline’s colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Cicilline has also introduced H. Con. Res. 59, a concurrent resolution that supports designating June 21 each year as National ASK (Asking Saves Kids) Day. National ASK Day encourages parents to ask other parents if their child will be playing in a house with an unsecured gun. The goals of the National ASK Day initiative have been endorsed by Head Start, the American Public Health Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.