Panel Would Impose 7-Day Wait on All Handgun Sales

In a surprisingly easy victory for gun control advocates, the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday tacked onto a sweeping anti-drug bill a provision that imposes a national seven-day waiting period on handgun sales to allow local police to investigate the backgrounds of would-be buyers.

The mandatory “cooling off period,” as some legislators called it, is designed to prompt greater scrutiny of individuals seeking to buy handguns in about 30 states that now have lesser or no waiting periods. The measure, facing an uncertain future in Congress, would not directly affect states such as California that have stricter controls. California has a 15-day waiting period.

“I’m delighted and thrilled. This is going to save lives,” said a tearful Sarah Brady, whose husband--White House Press Secretary James S. Brady--was shot and paralyzed seven years ago in an assassination attempt on President Reagan. Sarah Brady has since become a prime spokesman for the gun control movement.

If such a waiting period had been in place when John W. Hinckley Jr. used a false address to buy the $29 pawnshop gun that he used to shoot her husband, Brady said after the vote, “there’s a very good chance Jim would be briefing this afternoon.”

A National Rifle Assn. spokesman, however, pledged that the 2.8-million member group--always a strong lobbying force on Capitol Hill--will launch a full-scale assault against the measure.

“The idea of having to ask permission from the police to purchase a pistol for self-protection is repugnant,” David Conover, NRA federal liaison official, said in an interview.

“Waiting periods don’t work: criminals don’t fill out forms and certainly don’t give their correct names and addresses and wait for police to find out their criminal activity,” Conover said. “This is the only issue before Congress that affects every gun owner, and we’ll make this our top priority.”

Indeed, the waiting period provision promises to be among the most hotly debated measures in the far-reaching anti-drug-abuse bill that the Judiciary Committee approved on Thursday and sent to the full House.

Even with the expected opposition from the NRA, supporters of the waiting period predict that they have generated greater momentum on the issue than ever before and should have enough votes to win in the House. The Senate is debating similar legislation.

Reagan Lends Support

Advocates pointed to support from two surprising fronts. President Reagan, a lifelong NRA member, last week lauded California’s system of checking into the backgrounds of potential gun buyers, saying that “I would like to see that generally.” In addition, some Republican congressmen on the Judiciary Committee, such as Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), have generally opposed gun control legislation.

Lungren, in a strong vow of support that shocked and impressed several of his Democratic colleagues, said the seven-day waiting period “makes eminent sense” and he pointed to a 1988 Gallup Poll which showed that 91% of those surveyed supported such a move.

Police officials, who have long supported a waiting period, applauded the committee decision. The Law Enforcement Steering Committee, a coalition of police groups nationwide, called the waiting period “critical to law enforcement’s bid to reduce drug-related violence.”

The 21% of criminals thought to buy their guns from licensed dealers, the 9,000 people shot to death each year and the loopholes in current gun laws--all provide “clear and compelling” reason to give police time to check into any criminal or mental problems of people who want to buy guns, the police committee said.

In attaching the gun measure to the drug bill, Rep. Edward F. Feighan (D-Ohio) said: “The drug war on our streets is becoming a massacre. A national waiting period will cut the supply of firepower to gangs peddling drugs to our children.”