Gun safety advocate Melissa Carden is running for Senate District 28
"Gun safety will always be one of my top priorities because it's public safety. We don't have to live this way."
I met with Melissa Carden at the beautiful Stillhouse Cove Park1 in Cranston. The weather was perfect. Carden is running in the Democratic Primary, in a five-way race, for State Senate in District 28 (Cranston, Providence). [That primary will be held on Tuesday, September 10.] The other candidates include Darrèll Brown, Bernice Morris, Lammis Vargas, and John Crok Jr.
The following has been edited for clarity:
Steve Ahlquist: You're the executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence. This week there was a tragic shooting in Atlanta, that we're still hearing about the repercussions of. How does an event like that impact your work and the debate here in Rhode Island?
Melissa Carden: It's devastating. It puts the issue at the forefront of people's minds and it reminds us that here in Rhode Island we're safer than people are in Georgia because we have stricter laws. We just passed a safe storage law that they don't have in Georgia. But the event in Georgia also reminds us how important the work is and how we have more to do. For example, we need the assault weapons ban.
Tragedies like this motivate people to do more and we need as many people as possible in the fight. We have so many great advocates and partners and we really couldn't do the work without them. Whether it's Rhode Island KIDS COUNT or the teachers at NEARI, it makes a difference to have those voices involved. We're grateful that we've made the progress that we have in Rhode Island. It makes our families and community safer and that's important - but we have more work to do.
Steve Ahlquist: You're running for a seat in the Senate. And as you know, the Senate President has said, many times now, that he thinks that an assault weapon ban should be passed at the federal level, not at the state level, which seems like a convenient way of pushing aside the question because we know that an assault weapon ban is probably a decade away under best possible circumstances.
Melissa Carden: With any issue - when it's important - when it's public safety, about our kids, or when the number is something close to 70% of students and parents being afraid of guns in schools or something happening in their schools, we can't give up. We have to persist, keep electing people, and keep growing the movement until it's so loud that lawmakers can't say no anymore.
Steve Ahlquist: What do you say inside the Senate? Right now you're outside the Senate and as an advocate, you're free to say pretty much whatever you need to say to the Senate President, but when you're inside, you're going to be working on a host of issues, gun safety is just one issue.
How do you convince the Senate President to bring it to a vote? I remember what happened with reproductive rights and the enormous amount of effort it took to push that through in the final days of the session It was a monstrous effort on the part of people working thousands of hours - and it still barely made it through. AGun safety advocates have done equivalent work over the years. It seems to be as big an issue for people, but that doesn't seem to motivate Senate leadership. As a senator, not an advocate, how do you make the case?
Melissa Carden: Gun safety will always be one of my top priorities because it's public safety. We don't have to live this way. I think a lot of Americans think it's some inevitable thing - but it's not.
Steve Ahlquist: Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance called school shootings “the reality we live in.”
Melissa Carden: It's preventable. No other developed country lives this way. To my mind, it makes this issue particularly important. It's barbaric.
It's the reason I got involved in advocacy because when you see how communities and families are traumatized by something preventable, it's particularly egregious. I'll always work on this issue, in whatever capacity I am in, whether as a volunteer leader with Moms Demand Action, as a staffer for the Coalition, and hopefully, in a political role. My goal is to win this race, and gun safety issues will continue to be a priority for the rest of my life because we shouldn't be living this way.
Steve Ahlquist: I fear that Rhode Island won't act until the worst happens and then we're going to be kicking ourselves for delaying action until it's too late and people are hurt.
Let's move on. I pushed back on a response you gave at a recent forum about the proposed Millionaire Tax. I pointed out that no actual data shows that millionaires leave states to avoid paying a small increase in taxes.
Melissa Carden: This is what I've learned since. There is research out of Stanford that determined that wealthy individuals are less likely to move because they're active in their community. I got the data, and I support the millionaires tax.
Steve Ahlquist: That was easy.
Melissa Carden: My original answer was because, as I mentioned at the forum, I had just read this article in the Boston Globe which was based on anecdotes. But the data doesn't support the opponents of the millionaire tax, and I'm a data-driven person.
Steve Ahlquist: Normally when people say things in a forum, I don't correct it, but that Boston Globe article, which seemed to present data, was based on the opinions of people whose job it is to protect the fortunes of millionaires
Melissa Carden: It wasn't data and it wasn't a scientific study. Then there's the upside - an additional $126 million in the state budget. That money could be going to RIPTA, public schools, the bridge...
Steve Ahlquist: ...or school lunches, which is an educational issue.
I want to talk about the environment. What are your thoughts on climate change and where should we be moving on environmental issues?
Melissa Carden: I mentioned the bottle bill because where we are - I've cleaned up this area many times. You can see that when we have storms, the water comes up here, and it brings all the garbage in. The microplastics - I've scooped up sand down here and there's so many little pieces of plastic, you can't get it all. We're seeing the negative effects of microplastics on the human body. The bottle bill is a way to reduce litter. I think it's great that the governor has this anti-litter campaign, but when we pick it up it's just going to come back if we continue with the plastic.
Steve Ahlquist: I feel the same way about the bottle bill. It's only because of the advocacy of some moneyed interest that we don't have it. Every other New England state, except I think New Hampshire, has some version of a bottle bill.
Melissa Carden: If Massachusetts and Connecticut can do it, we can.
Steve Ahlquist: I'm right there with you. Also, our landfill is going to be full pretty soon. A bottle bill could extend the life of it.
Melissa Carden: That's where composting comes in as well. A third of what's in the landfill is food products.
Steve Ahlquist: We're doing some composting there, but not nearly enough.
Melissa Carden: Those are a couple of things we could do pretty quickly. Then there's the environmental justice bill that Chairwoman Euer introduced...
Steve Ahlquist: That passed in the Senate but hasn't passed in the House.
Melissa Carden: It's time for that to pass. We can have the right balance of economic development and climate action. Our natural resources are limited. So developing and growing with sustainable methods is the way to go.
Steve Ahlquist: One of our fastest-growing industries, theoretically, is wind power. And today, Massachusetts and Rhode Island announced plans to purchase more than 2,800 megawatts of clean energy from offshore wind projects.
Melissa Carden: Clean energy is where we have to be focused. I know there are some concerns about transitioning out of oil and gas jobs. But we can do that.
Steve Ahlquist: Rhode Island has an excellent labor retraining system. There's Climate Jobs RI for instance, leading the charge on this. We are a smart labor town. If there's a way to train people for these new jobs, we'll have that down.
Melissa Carden: And fully funding RIPTA [Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority] is an environmental issue too, because we are so dependent on our cars for transportation. Growing up in Rhode Island, I never took the bus. I worked at Textron downtown for a couple of years and the bus was very convenient - it came right up Broad Street and took me downtown. But there's a lack of awareness among people that this is a way to help the climate crisis.
When I meet people who live in Europe, they're so much more conscious about the environment and their impact. I remember meeting someone from Germany who was telling me that they didn't have a dryer in their home. They wash their clothes and hang them on drying racks because they don't want to use the electricity. A big part of this is education. Maybe your family can have one car instead of two. How much less electricity can you use?
Steve Ahlquist: My wife went to Amsterdam two years ago for a wedding and my family went out to England this year and both times, public transportation was amazing.
I want to talk about the twin issues of housing and homelessness. Cranston and Providence - your district overlaps both cities - have mayors who are being hard on homeless people. On top of that, when people tell me the solution is building more affordable housing, I think, “That's great, but in the seven years it's going to take to build that housing, cruel mayors are weaponizing the police against the poor.” I'm not asking you to solve this issue, but what are some of your thoughts and ideas on this?
Melissa Carden: You mentioned affordable housing. I was talking to someone who works with the unhoused and she was saying that right now there's no carrot and no stick for the cities and towns to meet their goals for affordable housing. That could be one way to incentivize the cities and towns to build housing.
And we need more shelter beds. That's obvious because we can't build affordable housing fast enough. We know the answer is more affordable housing and I saw where Providence recently announced a bunch of projects. I think Cranston might be able to learn something from Providence. In Cranston, there's been no investment in affordable housing for 13 years. We must incentivize affordable housing and we have to have more shelter beds.
I mean, winter's almost here.
Steve Ahlquist: If I know the governor, he won't act until sometime in December. He'll figure out something last minute and it will not be enough.
Melissa Carden: And I know shelter beds are not the final answer. But given the lack of something else, there has to be a place for people to go.
Steve Ahlquist: I would like it if the governor took this issue more seriously. I would also like to see more compassion on the part of Mayors Hopkins and Smiley. Neither of them seems to care, in my opinion.
Melissa Carden: Last week the Cranston Herald did a feature about a couple who were living together unhoused. They did a good job because they showed who these people are, the story of how they ended up where they are, and that they're trying to live a decent life. They had housing vouchers, but of course, they couldn't use them. I remember last year the Boston Globe did a story following a family that lost housing. I think these stories help people to be more compassionate.
Steve Ahlquist: I hope so. I think it's not necessarily the compassion of individual people that's the issue, although that's a factor. It's the political and economic realities confronting the people who are in charge of these municipalities. They don't want to justify having spent that money on “those people” because there's a judgment that goes into it
Melissa Carden: Certainly there's a stigma.
Steve Ahlquist: Yeah, they're not as deserving. Political leaders don't want to have to justify why they spent millions of dollars to help out 400 people, and not on redoing the athletic field. It's also a moral crisis.
The Senate has taken the lead on addressing Rhode Island's healthcare crisis, which includes pursuing the possibility of a state medical school. Thoughts?
Melissa Carden: I've read a little bit about the proposed medical school. That could be a way to incentivize having more physicians. I think anything that helps, whether it's lowering prescription costs, connecting older Rhode Islanders with services, or helping them stay in their homes - whatever we can do along those lines is important.
Steve Ahlquist: Reproductive rights? I know you're good on that issue.
Carden opened her jacket to show off her Harris/Walz tee shirt, with the phrase “We won't go back” on the back of the tee shirt.
Melissa Carden: When I wear this, I have so many people come up to me and say, I like your shirt. Trump took us back and we can't continue that way. We have to make sure we have reproductive rights. Some people say we're all set on that in Rhode Island, but we don't know what's going to happen. We have to be vigilant about it and we have to make sure that birth control is also not taken away.
Steve Ahlquist: Like through the mail by enforcing the Comstock Act?
Melissa Carden: Right. There are a lot of reasons why we have to make sure Kamala Harris wins.
Steve Ahlquist: I'm fairly certain she'll win Rhode Island
Melissa Carden: Although it does surprise me how many Trump supporters there are in Rhode Island.
Steve Ahlquist: What do you think about legally acknowledging the right to a meaningful education in Rhode Island? The right to an education.
Melissa Carden: Education is the best investment the government can make in people. It needs to start early. I was looking at the Economic Progress Institute and all the work that they do to expand access to childcare for low and modest-income families, which I support a thousand percent.
Steve Ahlquist: EPI is one of my favorite advocacy groups.
Melissa Carden: When we look at the budget, public school education is one of the most important things. I support the free lunches, which is a priority for NEARI this year.
Steve Ahlquist: It was ironic to watch people from Rhode Island, some of whom were responsible for killing the school lunch bill, cheering for Walz at the Democratic National Convention. Walz managed to sign free school meals into law in his state. In Rhode Island, we claim that education is important and we know hungry kids can't learn, but we can’t do this simple thing.
Melissa Carden: We need to do this. There was an investment made in multi-language learning programs, which was needed. Ultimately. the goal should be that every child, no matter their zip code, gets a top-notch education that includes access to mental health services and enough school counselors, school nurses, and all the things we know kids need to thrive at school.
Steve Ahlquist: We would never think about putting an aircraft carrier out to sea without a fully staffed mental health and physical health crew on board to help the people on that ship be able to do their best work. And yet we open a school and we say, “A part-time nurse visiting once a week will be fine.” That doesn't make sense to me. Our kids need support to succeed at school. This is the cost of education.
Melissa Carden: The Surgeon General talking about gun violence as a public health crisis. He also talked about the challenges of kids' mental health because of social media. Their needs are greater than ever and we have to make sure we're addressing them. If we don't address them when they're kids, if we don't give them what they need, they can't grow into healthy adults.
Steve Ahlquist: Right-wing social media influencers are recruiting our kids in some pretty ugly ways and our kids aren't necessarily equipped to know what those messages mean or how to critically assess them.
Melissa Carden: We have to teach our kids how to be healthy with technology, right? There are all kinds of best practices and now lots of schools are imposing no-phone policies
Steve Ahlquist: I've seen that. Part of me is for that, but part of me worries that in the event of a school shooting, kids use their phones to contact parents and authorities.
Melissa Carden: I hear that from a lot of folks, but we need to make sure we change the laws and the kids don't have access to guns. The phone's not going to protect them from a shooter.
We shouldn't be making these huge decisions because we have easy access to guns. I mean, they build schools with zigzag corridors in case in case of a shooting. You know what I mean? There is no school safety when most school shooters are students at the school or former students who have access to their parent's guns at home. You can have bulletproof glass, locks on the doors, and key cards, but that's not what safety is.
And law enforcement doesn't make a difference either because they stood outside a classroom for 40 minutes...
Steve Ahlquist: They don't want to get shot. Or shoot a kid, maybe. It's hard to imagine that choice.
Melissa Carden: When you think about the parents, the Uvaldi parents who knew that this happened in Parkland, the Parkland parents knew that it happened in Sandy Hook. It's just going to keep happening. And all the reporters and the pundits on television say, “This is so shocking,” but it's not shocking! It's been happening for years and you're saying the same thing and you're not talking about the real problem. They're saying that we have to fortify our schools and the money that's spent on fortifying schools has spawned a whole industry. They're all making money - retired FBI people and retired cops start these businesses.
What gives me hope is that after Parkland, Dick's Sporting Goods said, “We're not selling guns anymore." The CEO said, "We're not going to be part of this. That's it.” I am grateful for that. And it helped their business because so many people care about this issue.
Also giving me hope are the advocates who give their time for all the important work that needs to be done, whether it's gun safety, environmental issues, or caring for older Rhode Islanders - whatever. So many people volunteer for hospice. So many people are doing important work as volunteers or in groups like EPI, who are advocating for low and modest-income people. There's a lot of work to do, but we can do it. We can do difficult things. We have to make difficult choices and I want to help do that.
Steve Ahlquist: One last question: When you're going door to door, what do you say to get people to vote for you?
Melissa Carden: I talk about my experience as a gun safety advocate. I say I want to do more. There's more work to do. Part of what I said at one of the forums is, "I'm a doer. Whether I'm cleaning up here in this park, raising money for the Roger Williams Park Conservancy, or at the State House, I get things done. That's how I'm pitching myself.
When I mention the things that are important to me, like gun safety, reproductive rights, climate action, caring for older Rhode Islanders, and public schools - and then ask people, "What's important to you?" I would say 80% of the time they say, "The things you just said." That gives me confidence that my message resonates with them. I care about what people care about. This is why I want to do listening sessions - because I want to represent what the people want, not special interests. I see how hard that is because I work on one of those issues and that motivates me to want to make the system work for the people.
Steve Ahlquist: Thank you so much.
Melissa wrote, “Stillhouse Cove Park used to be a dumping ground. A group of neighbors joined together and formed the Edgewood Waterfront Preservation Association and made it the beautiful spot it is today. It is led by Barbara Rubine. I am on the board. I think it shows the power of advocacy and community engagement. There is another community group called the Pawtuxet Green Revival that is working to preserve access to the area around the Pawtuxet River.”