RI Joins Other States In Fight Against Gun Violence

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island has joined a regional coalition to stem the tide of gun violence. On Thursday, Gov. Gina Raimondo joined forces with governors in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The four states will share data and law enforcement resources to prevent interstate gun trafficking and collaborate on research into the effects of gun violence, their governors announced. The move means the states are not going to wait for the federal government to act, the governors said.

The move comes eight days after Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Forming coalition represents another step by the states to tackle gun violence amid continued inaction from Congress, the governors said.

"We’re not going to hold our breath and we’re not going to risk our children’s lives," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters on a conference call with Raimondo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy.

Through the agreement, the states will help each other stop potentially dangerous gun buyers from skirting state gun laws by filling in gaps in the federal background check database, the Democratic governors said.

For instance, New York will give the other three states access to its database of 77,000 people whom doctors have flagged as mentally ill and would not be able to buy a gun in the Empire State, Cuomo said. The data will also include information about active arrest warrants and orders of protection, he said.

The states' respective law enforcement agencies will collaborate more closely to intercept illegal guns that make their way to the Northeast from southern states, Murphy said. And their state universities and other research institutions will look to study of the impact of gun violence on public health, which the federal Centers for Disease Control currently cannot do, Murphy said.

The agreement will bolster each state's already strong gun-control laws, the governors said. New York's landmark 2013 SAFE Act, passed in the wake of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, increased background check requirements and imposed stricter rules on assault weapons.

The governors praised survivors of the Florida school shooting for taking Congress to task and chastised Republican federal lawmakers for doing nothing in the massacre's wake.

"Putting ourselves in the shoes of these kids — they want answers, they want action and they’re afraid. So it hasn’t been a surprise to me that the kids are leading," Raimondo said.

Cuomo said congressional Democrats should put forward a "real" and "sensible" gun control bill. He said proposals to raise the minimum age to buy a gun and to ban devices that turn semi-automatic guns into machine guns are half-measures that won't solve the problem.

"Those are just political crumbs ... put forward to end the political discomfort for some of the elected officials," Cuomo said.

Joe Trillo, one of Raimondo's opponents in the upcoming election, spoke out Thursday in an e-mail and suggested taking several steps to improve school safety, such "raising the legal age to 21 to get any gun unless you have a special permit from the local police department;' beefing up background checks and sharing information over law enforcement databases; addressing mental health evaluations; and training some school workers to carry concealed weapons.

Noah Manskar, Patch Staff, contributed to this story.

Photo: Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool