House Bill 1717, signed into law Thursday afternoon by the governor, strengthens the protection from abuse law by permitting the seizure of firearms from people against whom PFA orders have been lodged.

Under the new law, any individual against whom a PFA order has been issued may be ordered to surrender all firearms. The weapons may be sold to a consignment shop or turned over to the local sheriff or a third party for safekeeping.

Judges will decide which cases should be subjected to the new law. They may order defendants to give up all their weapons, not just guns used to threaten a domestic partner, for the duration of the PFA.

"I am very pleased to get this bill passed, and I hope it goes a long way into protecting vulnerable men and women," True said.

The bill won praise from the governor.

"Too many unnecessary acts of violence have taken place when arguments between couples have escalated beyond control," Rendell said when he signed the bill in Harrisburg. "Individuals have been shot, burned and injured, but they could have been saved if more measures had been in place to protect them.

"House Bill 1717 provides the necessary measures to save someone from a brutal attack which could prove fatal. This bill is not about punishing someone -- it's about potentially saving someone's life."

Under the bill, persons against whom a PFA order has been filed will face a misdemeanor charge if they refuse to surrender a firearm. The crime is punishable by up to 5 years in jail and permanent loss of the right to own guns.

The weapon may be given to a third party, but only if that arrangement is approved by local law-enforcement officials.

"Safekeepers" of surrendered guns who return the weapons before the protection order expires also could be charged with a misdemeanor.

True said the bill was passed after more than a year of negotiations.

"It deals with taking firearms from people, and when you bring that up in the General Assembly, it raises the hair on the backs of the necks of certain groups," she said.

Working with the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, True collected input from people on both sides of the gun-control issue.

"There was a lot of give and take," True said. "It took about 16 months of 'yes, no,' 'yes, no,' and pretty much what I did was negotiate between the two groups."

In the end, she said, "we all came together and got it done."

True said the bill had 138 co-sponsors in the state House, including legislators from both sides of the gun-control debate. Best of all, she said, was that while the National Rifle Association did not vocally support her bill, it did not object to it.

"That's just as good," she said.

Besides victims of domestic violence, True said, the bill will help law-enforcement officers.

"Very often police officers get shot while responding to very emotional domestic incidents," she said. "I think this will help police, too."

True said she plans to revisit the law in about six months and ask the Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Fraternal Order of Police to make sure the bill "is doing what it's supposed to do."

Larry Alexander's e-mail address is lalexander@lnpnews.com