Virginia Democrats push gun control ahead of special session

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Virginia Democrats push gun control ahead of special session

2019-06-18 02:51 Last Updated At：03:00

Democrats in Virginia are trying to make the public case for greater gun restrictions ahead of a special legislative session next month spurred by the fatal shooting of 12 people at a city office.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney joined family members of gun violence victims and other advocates Monday at a Richmond church to stress what they said is the need for greater gun control.

Kaine discussed his experience with gun violence as a former mayor of Richmond and governor of Virginia. Kaine was chief executive of the state in 2007 when a student with a history of mental problems fatally shot 32 people at Virginia Tech. He called it the worst day of his life.

Lawmakers in Virginia and Congress both have opportunities to pass worthwhile gun laws, including mandating universal background checks on gun buyers, he said.

"Now is the time for us to convert an opportunity into meaningful action," Kaine said.

Gov. Ralph Northam announced a July 9 special session in response to a mass shooting in Virginia Beach on May 31. Employee DeWayne Craddock used two semi-automatic handguns, a silencer and extended ammunition magazines to kill 12 people in and around a municipal office. All but one of the victims were former colleagues Craddock had worked with for years. Craddock was killed in an intense gunbattle with police.

Monday's event was part of a broader effort by the Northam administration to build public support for a slate of gun-control legislation ahead of the special session. His proposals include a ban on silencers and high-capacity magazines, as well as a broadening of the ability of local governments to prohibit guns in city buildings. The governor said he also wants mandatory, universal background checks before gun purchases; a limit of one handgun purchase per month; and a "red flag" law that would allow authorities to seize weapons from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Northam, a Democrat faced with a gun-friendly, Republican-controlled General Assembly in the middle of a legislative election year, has also advocated that every lawmaker go on record for or against his proposals during the special session rather than quietly killing the bills in subcommittee.

Mark Whitfield, whose 9-year-old daughter was killed last month after being shot at a community cookout in Richmond, called for a comprehensive approach to curbing gun violence, including combating drug use and alleviating concentrated poverty. He said society needs to do a better job of identifying angry individuals who are prone to using guns to hurt others.

"We've got to start walking around checking people's temperatures," Whitfield said.

Republicans declined to comment on Monday's event but have indicated they have no intention of following Northam's agenda. House Speaker Kirk Cox said Republicans will propose tougher penalties for those who use guns to commit crimes, including new mandatory minimum penalties. The governor has recently announced he will no longer sign any legislation that adds a new mandatory minimum requirement to state law.

Stoney, Richmond's mayor and a potential future gubernatorial candidate, said the public is tired of "spineless leadership" and wants immediate change. He also said minority communities are disproportionately suffering from gun violence.

"In cities like ours, black and brown people are dying each and every day," Stoney said. "So the question I have for the General Assembly is, how many more is it going to take?"

Venice tests a 5-euro entry fee for day-trippers as the Italian city grapples with overtourism

2024-04-26 00:14 Last Updated At：00:20

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro ($5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase that also designated separate entrances for tourists, and residents, students and workers.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism, insisting that only a resurgence in the population will restore balance to a city where narrow alleyways and water buses are often clogged with tourists.

Hundreds of Venetians protested against the program, marching festively though the city's main bus terminal behind banners reading “No to Tickets, Yes to Services and Housing.” Protesters scuffled briefly with police with riot gear who blocked them from entering the city, before changing course and entering over another bridge escorted by plainclothes police officers. The demonstration wrapped up peacefully in a piazza.

Tourists arriving at the main station encountered almost as many journalists as stewards on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

Arianna Cecilia, a tourist from Rome visiting Venice for the first time, said she thought it was “strange” to have to pay to enter a city in her native country, and be funneled through separate entrance ways for tourists. She and her boyfriend were staying in nearby Treviso, and so downloaded the QR code as required. But she was still caught off-guard while soaking in her first view ever of Venice's canals by the sight of the entrance signs and her boyfriend telling her to get out the ticket.

On the other side of the entrance ways, workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station. Transgressors face fines of 50 to 300 euros ($53 to $320), but officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of overtourism, and officials hope that the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors, which last year numbered 4.6 million and is down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cellphone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete.

“It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. On peak days, local police set up one-way traffic for pedestrians to keep the crowds moving.

Residents opposing the day-tripper tax insist that the solution to Venice's woes are to boost the resident population and the services they need, limiting short-term rentals to make available more housing and attract families back from the mainland.

Last year, Venice passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park. You don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro declared the launch day, coinciding with an Italian holiday, a success, registering 15,700 paying visitors, 50% more than anticipated.

More than 97,000 others had downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. Hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, provided a QR code for visitors to attest to their stay, which includes a hotel tax — accounting for 40,000 of those.

Venturini, the tourist official, said that interest in Venice’s pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities, and municipalities abroad such as Barcelona, Spain, and Amsterdam.

But Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, doesn't see the fee as the cure-all. Neighboring apartments in her residential building near the famed Rialto Bridge once inhabited by families are now short-term apartment rentals.

The corner butcher shop closed. Yet she noted that the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for the traditional aperitivo, which can grow rowdy.

She was passing out mock European Union passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian Constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii. It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism,’’ Rodino said.