Bill aimed at separating abusers, guns poised to become law
Legislation aimed at curbing the more than 100 deaths a year in Pennsylvania linked to domestic violence by taking guns away from abusers is headed to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk.
On Wednesday, the state Senate voted 43-5 to pass a bill that would close what advocates say are gaps in the state law.
Among provisions of House Bill 2060 that victim advocates welcomed was one that would shear the timeline for those convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence charge to surrender their weapons from the current 60 days to 24 hours.
“Narrowing that window of time that the offender has to turn in their gun is just increasing the safety by leaps and bounds,” said Michelle Robinson-Ritter, executive director of Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which provides services in Washington, Fayette and Greene counties. “(The bill) just gives additional protections to the victims in so many ways.”
The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence issues yearly reports on statewide fatalities. Last year, the group counted 117 domestic violence deaths, two thirds of which involved a gun.
Supporters of the measure – initially sponsored by state Rep. Marguerite Quinn, R-Bucks County – said it would prevent some of those murders without infringing on defendants’ rights.
PCADV spokeswoman Julie Bancroft stressed it only pertains to cases that have resulted in a criminal conviction or adjudication in civil court.
“Due process is absolutely in place,” she said.
Wolf is expected to sign the measure into law immediately, his office said. It was previously approved by the House. The National Rifle Association’s neutrality on the proposal likely allowed it to get that far.
Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, was among those to vote no this week. The House passed the measure 131-62 last week.
A Bartolotta aide said her boss wasn’t available for an interview Wednesday. The lawmaker said in an emailed statement she supported a Senate version which the chamber approved unanimously in March.
But the House’s offering, she went on, “was opposed by many of my constituents due to substantial drafting errors in the legislation and concerns regarding difficulties with the compliance components.”
The bill would eliminate provisions in existing law that allow people subject to such orders to give their guns to a family member or friend.
“Eliminating transfers of guns to third parties like family and friends was essential, since proper safekeeping should be limited to law enforcement and licensed dealers,” said Brian Gorman, executive director of the legal-aid group Southwestern Pennsylvania Legal Services, in an email.
The measure also would require defendants in cases where a judge has granted a final restraining order to relinquish their firearms, cutting out jurists’ discretion on whether or not to do so.
Nine days before a Sept. 19 shooting spree at a district judge’s office in Masontown, Fayette County, ended with 61-year-old gunman Patrick Dowdell dead and four others injured, Dowdell had appeared before a common pleas judge for a hearing on a final protection-from-abuse order requested by his wife.
Crystal Dowdell wrote in a court petition that her husband had attacked her Aug. 25, choking her with a belt, after she asked for a divorce. She told the court in a petition a day earlier that he’d been holding a gun when he “grabbed me up tight next to him” and told her there wouldn’t be one.
Judge Joseph George Jr. had declined to order her husband to turn over weapons in his possession when he granted the final PFA order.
For supporters of the new legislation, cases like that one lend urgency to changing the existing law.
“We’ve heard challenges that this is an attack against responsible gun owners, and this absolutely is not,” Bancroft said. “If you’re not abusing an intimate partner or a family member, this doesn’t apply.”