Assembly Narrowly OKs 15-Day Wait on All Gun Purchases

Legislation supported by Gov. George Deukmejian to extend the 15-day waiting period for handgun purchases to all firearms--including hunting rifles and shotguns--was narrowly passed by the Assembly on Tuesday.

The bill, aimed at making it tougher for criminals and the mentally disturbed to legally buy a gun, is widely regarded as at least as significant and perhaps more so than the ban on military-style assault weapons enacted last month.

For the National Rifle Assn., whose usually influential lobbying operation was left in disarray by the beating it took over the assault-gun ban, approval of the waiting-period measure represented a second consecutive thumping.

Backers of the bill by Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento) argued that if the measure had been law it would have stopped Stockton schoolyard murderer Patrick Purdy from obtaining the many firearms he legally purchased before his Jan. 17 killing foray. Opponents claimed that it would not have affected Purdy, a deranged misfit.

Passage of the bill occurred over the opposition of Republicans who unsuccessfully argued for a telephone hot line and computerized background check within the state Department of Justice. They contended that this would eliminate the need for any waiting period and allow immediate sale of guns to legal purchasers.

But Connelly and his backers argued that the Department of Justice would be financially and technically unable to hook up such a system within the next 18 months as demanded by Republicans. Even if installed, the high-tech system would fail to identify thousands of illegal purchasers, he said.

On a 43-21 vote, two more than the simple majority, the bill was sent to the Senate, where its prospects for approval are considered favorable in a newly energized anti-gun political climate.

The NRA and other gun-owner organizations staked out the Assembly as the central battleground over gun-control legislation this year, largely because its members must run for reelection every two years and are considered more vulnerable to lobbying on the politically sensitive issue than are senators.

For the last 15 years, purchasers of handguns have had to wait for 15 days until they take possession of the firearm. This indirect form of gun registration enables the state Department of Justice to check into the buyer’s background to determine whether he or she is prohibited from purchasing a pistol or revolver because of a felony record or because the prospective buyer has been found by a court to be mentally ill.

When he came out for banning assault weapons last winter, Deukmejian also called for extending the 15-day waiting period to the sale of long guns--rifles and shotguns--as a way of helping to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unbalanced.

However, opponents of the extension maintain that it would merely inconvenience the law-abiding gun purchaser and would not deter criminals who, they argue, seldom legally buy firearms anyway.

Connelly, who unsuccessfully carried a similar bill last session, told the Assembly that in the view of some law enforcement officials “this is the second most important, if indeed not the most important, weapons-control bill that will be considered this year.”

Citing figures compiled by the Department of Justice, Connelly noted that last year the agency made almost 300,000 handgun background checks. The department estimates that extending the wait requirement to long guns would add another 1 million purchasers to be investigated.

Among other things, the bill also would:

- Make ineligible to purchase a gun for five years anyone involuntarily held for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. A record of the detention would be sent to the Justice Department.

- Prohibit ownership of any firearm by a felon. Under current state law, felons are prohibited only from possessing handguns. Federal law prohibits them from possessing any gun.

- Require that private sales of guns be handled through a licensed dealer and that the sale be subject to the 15-day wait and a background check by the department. Such a restriction currently applies to private handgun sales, but critics contend that the law is virtually ignored, especially at gun shows and swap meets.

- Make it either a misdemeanor or a felony on the first offense to transfer a firearm to someone not legally qualified to possess it, punishable by a fine of $1,000 and a year in jail or a $10,000 fine and up to three years in state prison.