HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania lawmakers on Wednesday passed the state’s first anti-violence legislation in more than a decade that deals directly with firearms, after years of lobbying by violence-prevention groups to persuade a Legislature historically protective of gun rights.
The bill would force people in Pennsylvania with a domestic violence ruling against them to more quickly surrender their guns. Advocates said February’s Parkland, Fla., high school shooting that killed 17 people and the pervasiveness of the #MeToo movement helped propel it.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 43-5 on Wednesday to send the bill to the desk of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who plans to sign it.
The bill picked up speed in March, when the Senate negotiated changes that moved the National Rifle Association to drop its opposition to it. The Senate promptly passed it, unanimously, but changes in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives triggered a new fight with gun-rights advocates before the chamber approved it last week, 131-62.