RICHMOND — Eight years ago, Shana Turner’s youngest son, Shaq, was shot and killed in an apparent murder-suicide. The Virginia Beach resident has been at every gun violence prevention advocacy day at the General Assembly ever since.

This year was no different. Earlier this month, Turner rallied alongside advocacy group Moms Demand Action and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger at the Bell Tower outside the state capitol building, urging lawmakers to pass what they say is common sense firearm regulations.

“I lost my son to senseless gun violence,” Turner said. “That’s why this is important to me.”

In Virginia, gun deaths increased by 47% between 2013 and 2022. Black boys and men ages 15 to 34, like Shaquille Turner , account for just 3% of the state’s population, but accounted for a disproportionate 46% of all homicide deaths in 2022, according to a report by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

“We as survivors, we deserve a right to heal,” said Turner, who operates Hampton Roads Moms Against Senseless Killings, a nonprofit that works to prevent gun violence and advocate for surviving families. “Nobody wants to be a part of this club.”

Turner was among the advocates who backed a slate of gun regulations this legislative session. The Democrat-controlled Senate passed a number of those restrictions Monday along party lines, including a ban on assault weapons . If the bills are passed by the House, they’ll face an uphill battle at the governor’s desk.

This is the third time a ban on assault weapons has passed the Senate. In 2023, when Republicans were the majority party in the House of Delegates, its counterpart bill in the House died in a public safety subcommittee. Last year, the General Assembly voted to pass a near-identical bill, but it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. At the time, Youngkin said the Constitution “precludes the Commonwealth from prohibiting a broad category of firearms widely embraced for lawful purposes, such as self-defense.”

Democrats are also trying again to pass legislation that would require people to securely store and lock up guns in homes where children are present and that would ban guns and other weapons from hospitals providing mental health and developmental services.

Last year, Youngkin proposed an amendment to the latter measure that would only prohibit people from transferring guns to people receiving mental health treatment. Virginia law prohibits guns at public hospitals, but private institutions can only ban them as a matter of hospital policy, not state law.

Other legislation aims to restrict concealed firearms and ghost guns, which are manufactured without serial numbers and are therefore impossible to trace.

Virginia requires a permit to concealed carry a handgun. State law classifies the concealed carry of a gun or other weapon without a permit as a class 1 misdemeanor, except under specific conditions. If passed, Senate Bill 1329 would remove the exemption that allows people who can lawfully own a gun to conceal carry in a car.

The bill’s patron, Sen. David Marsden, D-Burke, said the legislation would prevent gun thefts from cars. Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain of Harrisonburg said it would have the opposite effect because people without a conceal carry permit would leave their guns on the dashboard or passenger seat when they exited the vehicle.

Senate Bill 881 would ban the manufacture, sale and possession of guns that when broken down, are not detectable as a firearm by X-ray machines, as well as guns without valid serial numbers.

The Senate also voted to pass a bill that would provide a five-day waiting period for anyone seeking to purchase a gun. The bill’s patron, Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Merrifield, said similar efforts in Florida and California had proven to be effective in reducing gun homicides and suicides. The gunman who shot and killed six people at a Chesapeake Walmart in 2022 purchased the handgun used on the day of the shooting.

“They provide a cooling off period,” Salim said of the waiting period. “This bill gives people that crucial moment to step back, seek help or reconsider.”

Obenshain said that would put the lives of domestic violence victims who had filed an emergency protective order at risk. Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, acknowledged the concern and asked if Obenshain had proposed an amendment to carve out an exemption for people in that scenario. Obenshain said he didn’t recall. Roem said there was space to address that concern as the bill makes its way through the House, but urged lawmakers not to defeat the bill in the meantime.

“My number one priority is making sure we are preventing suicides when we know we have an opportunity to do so,” she said.

The Senate also voted to ban anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing an assault firearm, except for people in law enforcement and in the military.