2 R.I. Republicans offer proposals to curb gun violence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — From a Republican U.S. Senate candidate — and a candidate for governor who co-chaired President Trump's Rhode Island campaign — have come proposals to curb gun-violence that do not entail any new bans or restrictions on guns.

State Rep. Robert Nardolillo III — a Coventry Republican running for the U.S. Senate — has proposed a 10 percent surtax on violent video games — and more specifically those rated "Mature" — to raise money "to increase mental health and counseling resources in schools."

Joseph Trillo, the former Republican state lawmaker who co-chaired Trump's campaign, and is now running for governor as an independent, said: "There is no ironclad way to protect our schools ... Even if we were able to ban AR-15s, there are too many of these guns to effectively be removed from our streets."

He suggests the state instead: "Raise the legal age to 21 to get any gun unless you have a special permit from the local police department,'' and create "a special concealed carry permit for 'gun-free zones' in our schools, whereby people such as teachers, coaches, custodians or other school personnel who go through a special training program can carry a concealed gun."

"Most importantly, persons with these concealed carry permits should be known only to the principal or senior staff ... [so] potential perpetrators would never know who or how many concealed-carry people are present in the schools,'' he said Thursday. "Schools should also have secured entrances with metal detectors and gunshot detectors, along with police officers patrolling the schools at least once a day at random times."

Nardolllo's video-game tax has not yet been introduced, but he explained his intent in a news release: to put the new tax dollars in a "special account for school districts to use to fund counseling, mental-health programs and other conflict-resolution activities."

"There is evidence that children exposed to violent video games at a young age tend to act more aggressively than those who are not," he said, citing one side of a long-running debate over the causal link between playing violent video games and perpetrating actual violence.

Since states cannot cannot ban the sale of video games to minors, Nardolillo said, his proposal would help schools "counteract the aggression they may cause."

“By offering children resources to manage their aggression today, we can ensure a more peaceful tomorrow,” said Nardollilo, who is, by profession, a funeral director.

The proposal is one of two revenue-raisers that Nardolillo, a two-term state lawmaker with one of the highest approval ratings in the Rhode Island legislature from the NRA — has proposed in the wake of the massacre of 17 people at a Parkland, Florida high school last week. 

He also has proposed A 25-cent increase in the state's $4.50-per-pack cigarette tax to finance school security improvements. (After a 50-cent increase last year, the new hike would give Rhode Island the highest state cigarette tax in the country, according to a state analysis.)

He said the options are wide: "Some have called for armed officers or even members of the National Guard to be stationed in every school while others have advocated for less invasive measures like cameras and additional locks."

The legislature would have to approve any new revenue-raiser, but Paul Dion, the state's chief of revenue analysis, warned that the new video-game tax Nardolillo proposed could knock Rhode Island "out of compliance with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement and ... jeopardize revenues the state receives under that agreement."

Dion explained that the agreement "requires that we have one uniform sales-tax rate ... Technically, if a state signatory is out of compliance with [the agreement], the businesses that are voluntarily collecting use tax and remitting to the state no longer have to do that."

While there is no guarantee that would happen, Dion cited tax division testimony that the state reaped $2.7 million as a result of the agreement last year.

— kgregg@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @kathyprojo