The gun law that President Joe Biden signed into law a week ago looks like a step towards addressing domestic violence to some, but also has flaws, according to other Butler County leaders who shared reactions to the legislation Friday.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal law addressing firearms sales and ownership in the last 15 years, drew varied reactions from people connected to the issue.

“Gun control is controversial, but we at VOICE believe any legislation is a step,” said Linda Strachan, executive director of the Victim Outreach Intervention Center in Butler. “We hope it helps keep people safe, but there is no guarantee legislation will keep people safe. It’s legislation.”

Of the 109 people who died as a result of domestic violence in Pennsylvania last year, 56% were killed by a current or former intimate partner, and 70% of them were shot, Strachan said, citing information from the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She also serves on the PCADV board of directors.

A provision of the Safer Communities Act takes aim at domestic violence by tightening the “boyfriend loophole” in gun ownership regulations by prohibiting someone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence as part of a dating relationship from purchasing or possessing a firearm for at least five years.

“When you’re talking about gun violence, (closing) the loophole could be a potential step to make people safer, which is what we always want to do,” Strachan said. “Closing the loophole — we think it’s a great step. Anything that keeps people safe, we’re in favor of.”

Another provision in the law provides states with funding to implement extreme risk protection order programs, also known as red flag laws, that allow families and authorities to temporarily restrict access to guns for people at a high risk of harming themselves or others, and to implement drug courts and other crisis intervention programs.

Strachan also called those measures “steps” that have the potential to help thwart domestic violence.

“We would hope this is a way to keep domestic survivors safer. We absolutely think it’s a good step. Hopefully, good things happen as a result,” Strachan said.

Sheriff Mike Slupe said he hasn’t reviewed the law, but he does not support red flag laws that don’t include due process.

“Someone makes a claim — there you go, take their guns,” Slupe said. “If a hearing is held — different story.”

He said a legal proceeding takes place to require someone with mental health issues to surrender their firearms.

When someone seeks a protection from abuse order, they have to give sworn testimony in court, he said. If the PFA is granted, deputies confiscate the defendant’s guns within 24 hours, he said.

“I am not in favor of taking guns away from any law-abiding citizen prior to any lawful judicial action that they have an opportunity to defend,” Slupe said.

The law includes needed funding for school safety and mental health services, but the enhanced background checks in the law won’t reduce the mass shootings like the one that led to its adoption, said Curt Hunka, manager of Down Range Supply in Butler Township.

“It increases school security and mental health services. Those are the good things,” Hunka said.

Finding ways to address mental health issues is a better way of trying to prevent mass shootings than expanding background checks, he said.

He said semiautomatic rifles such as AR-15s were sold to the public without background checks from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Those rifles didn’t become a focus of public attention until they were used in mass shootings beginning in the late 1990s when background checks were required to buy them, he said.

“Same guns with less background checks — less problems. Now, more background checks — more problems,” Hunka said.

Recent shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, led to creation and passage of the Safer Communities Act.

The bill would provide $250 million for the Community Mental Health Services Block grant, which enable states to expand access to mental health care.

The bill would provide funding to increase awareness of mental health issues among school-aged children; to train school personnel and other adults who interact with school-aged children to detect and respond to mental health issues; and to help connect those children with the care they may need.

The bill also would enable schools to leverage Medicaid funding to support their efforts in delivering critical mental health services to their students.

Further, the bill would provide $1 billion to support after-school, before-school and summer programs to help reduce the risk of violent incidents and law enforcement interactions, and increase student achievement.

The bill also provides $300 million to students and educators for the training and tools they need on how to prevent and respond to violence against themselves and others.