Our State and National Issues subcommittee is happy to report on some recent progress at the Statehouse regarding both abortion rights and gun control.
.
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, current Rhode Island law would ban abortion, so the Reproductive Privacy Act (H 5125, S 152), has been introduced to protect a woman's right to choose regardless of what happens at the federal level. At present, this bill has passed the House with the support of our representative, Dennis Canario, but is being held up in the Senate. If you would like to see this bill pass, we urge you to please contact our senator, Lou DiPalma, and ask him for his support.
.
On the issue of gun control, we were encouraged to see Governor Raimondo throw her support behind legislation which would 1) ban guns from K-12 schools (Rhode Island is currently one of a small handful of states which allows people with concealed-carry permits to bring their firearms onto school grounds), 2) ban assault weapons, and 3) ban high-capacity magazines. These three bills: The Safe Schools Act (H5762, S0636), The Assault Weapons Ban (H5741, S0635), and the Large Capacity Feeding Device Ban (H5739, S0637) are all strongly supported by our Committee but being held up in the General Assembly. Please contact both Dennis Canario (who is actively opposing these) and Lou DiPalma (who has expressed support) to let them know you would like to see these gun control measures become law.
.
.
The Subcommittee also urges you to RSVP and fill out the survey for the upcoming Legislative Forum on May 6th at the Tiverton library from 6-8pm and ATTEND if at all possible. It will be a unique opportunity to communicate directly with both Representative Canario and Senator DiPalma and make sure they know what their constituents really think:
.
.
Last but not least, note that you can now sign up to receive 'action alerts' on our website and please opt in! Once you do, the Subcommittee will be able to contact you whenever there is crucial step you can take to directly impact the advancement of democratic ideals/causes here in Rhode Island:
.