A bill seeking to create a state government office designed to curb gun violence on Friday advanced to a final vote in the House over objections from the chamber’s Republicans.

House Bill 21-1299 was the second of a trio of bills introduced in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Boulder to advance. Debate on the legislation came on the heels of the chamber giving preliminary approval to House Bill 1298, the first measure from the package that would bar those with violent misdemeanors from buying guns.

The legislation from Reps. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, and Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, would create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a clearinghouse charged with compiling gun violence data to drive decisions and strategies.

The office, which would be housed with the state Department of Public Health and Environment, would also craft public service messages and award grants to community organizations seeking to implement community-based gun violence prevention measures.

Sullivan, whose son, Alex, died in the 2012 Aurora Theater shooting, opened debate on the legislation by listing a number of reasons why his colleagues should support the proposal, touching on several points Republican lawmakers would later highlight.

“If I believed that mental health was the key component of gun violence, and I saw that the Office of Gun Violence Prevention was being housed in the Department of Health, I would vote for this bill,” he said. “If I was curious as to what the root cause of gun violence was, an office that did nothing 24/7 other than look for causes and hopefully come up with answers – I would vote for this bill.

“I hope that we can find reasons within House Bill 1299 to act with courage and responsibility.”

But as with House Bill 1298, Republican lawmakers objected to the bill.

“This bill misses the mark because it starts off on a premise that an inanimate object is the issue with the problem we face in society,” said Rep. Patrick Neville, a Castle Rock Republican who is a survivor of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

“If you were to strike the word gun out of this and just focus on the violence, it probably would be something I would be open to supporting. But instead, we start with the premise that the gun itself is the issue when it’s not, there are many ways and means people can use to inflict harm.”

While Republicans also ran a series of largely unsuccessful amendments on the bill, a bulk of the three-hour debate was dominated by Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, reading a lengthy report on efforts to curb gun violence in Oakland.

The bill is now up for a final vote in the House. It also needs to clear the legislative process in the Senate.