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By Tom Mooney and Amanda Milkovits
Journal Staff Writers
PROVIDENCE -- What do we mean when we talk about banning guns?
State Rep. Teresa Tanzi, of South Kingstown, thought she knew when, shortly after the Newtown, Conn., massacre last month she discussed introducing legislation banning all "semiautomatic" weapons.
Then she visited her local gun shop in Wakefield and gained some basic knowledge about how guns work. It changed her thinking.
She learned, for instance, that some of the most common hunting shotguns and rifles are semiautomatic, meaning the shooter must push the trigger each time for a bullet to fire. Tanzi says she's not looking to ban those kinds of semiautomatic guns anymore.
"I have definitely learned a lot in the intervening weeks of the tragedy of what kinds of weapons we should be looking at," Tanzi says. "There is a lot more detail and understanding that needs to go into shaping this legislation."
The Providence City Council, however, did not take such a selective viewpoint Thursday night when members passed a resolution calling for a ban on all semiautomatics in the city -- and encouraged the General Assembly to pass a similar statewide prohibition.