Pa. Gov. Wolf unveils gun violence effort after Philly shooting

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf directed state police and other agencies under his control today to focus greater efforts on addressing gun violence, two days after a gunman shot six Philadelphia police officers.

Wolf said set up a new Special Council on Gun Violence and gave it six months to recommend how to reduce mass shootings, domestic violence, suicides and accidental shootings.

He also established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and delinquency and a violence prevention division within the Health Department.

The announcement had been planned for Thursday but was rescheduled after the nearly eight-hour standoff in Philadelphia that left the officers with injuries not considered life-threatening. A suspect who fired at police from inside a building before finally surrendering has been arrested but not yet charged.

Wolf said state police will expand and support gun buy-back programs and increase monitoring of hate groups and white nationalists. His state police commissioner, Col. Robert Evanchick, said he will set up a task force to consider what steps to take regarding gun buy-back efforts.

The Office of Gun Violence Prevention will work to deter shootings in areas with high rates of violence and coordinate the reporting of lost and stolen guns to police.

The governor's office says more than 1,600 people died of gunshot wounds in Pennsylvania in 2017.