The Public Loses Again

Once again, disregarding both public safety and common sense, the House has rejected an effort to impose a minimum of control over the sale of handguns to felons, drug abusers and the mentally ill. The defeat of this measure, offered as an amendment to the omnibus anti-drug bill, was another triumph for the National Rifle Assn., whose implacable opposition to virtually any attempt to regulate the possession of guns extends even to making it harder for criminals and incompetents to buy firearms. The amendment’s backers said that they were cheered that 182 representatives voted against the NRA position. But that is small consolation. In the end, 228 voted for the NRA in what was yet another victory for its formidable lobbying power, yet another defeat for the cause of a marginally safer nation.

And what would the control bill have required? Only that throughout the country there would have to be a waiting period of no more than seven days between the time someone first went to buy a handgun and the time the gun could be picked up. During this interim, police would check to see if a would-be buyer was a felon, an identified drug addict, an illegal alien or mentally ill. A buyer who was none of these things could expect no problem in making a legal handgun purchase.

Opponents of the waiting-period idea scoffed that it was sure to be ineffective, since those who knew that they would be barred from buying a weapon would simply provide false information to thwart the checking procedure. Experience, though, suggests that the waiting period can be quite effective. California is one of 22 states with a law requiring a one-week wait. In 1986 that law caught 1,500 convicted felons trying to buy guns. Maryland is another state requiring a waiting period. Last year its law prevented 732 felons from making legal gun purchases. How many crimes may have been prevented, how many lives saved by these state laws? No one can ever know, but it is the height of foolishness to argue that waiting-period laws have no deterrent value.

Year after year, decade after decade, firearms account for the vast majority of the murders committed in the United States, up to two-thirds, with 11,381 homicides in 1986 alone attributed to guns. A federally mandated waiting period for handgun purchases wouldn’t end this plague. But certainly a waiting period could significantly inhibit the acquiring of guns by people who have no business having them. That’s why this reasoned and reasonable proposal was strongly supported by lawenforcement agencies throughout the country. To no avail. Once again the gun lobby prevailed, and once again reason and the public both lost.

The following members of California’s House delegation opposed the waiting period for purchases of handguns: Wally Herger (R-Yuba City), Norman D. Shumway (R-Stockton), Tony Coelho (D-Merced), Charles Pashayan Jr. (R-Fresno), William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), David Dreier (R-La Verne), Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), Al McCandless (R-Bermuda Dunes), Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado).