Urgent Call to Arms On the Brady Gun Bill : Reducing carnage without gunning down the Constitution

This week, the House of Representatives has a chance to thwart the National Rifle Association’s cynical and disingenuous effort to undermine sensible firearms regulation.

At stake is the passage of the now-famous Brady bill. It establishes a national seven-day waiting period for handgun buyers, giving local law-enforcement authorities time to conduct background checks. The waiting period between purchase and delivery might also discourage people driven to buy a gun in the heat of passion or by severe depression.

The NRA perversely backed the rival, weaker Staggers amendment, sponsored by Rep. Harley Staggers Jr.(D-W.Va), requiring that federal officials provide background checks at the time of sale. The Staggers language would supersede--and sabotage--the language and the intent of the Brady bill, which is named for former White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was severely wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.

TOO COSTLY: If the Staggers bill were passed, the cost to the federal government would be substantial, perhaps exceeding $100 million a year. The instant check would require gun-shop owners to call a federally subsidized phone bank, where a background check would be made by computer. Good idea, in theory. But impractical because 40 states lack fully automated criminal records. An integrated national computer bank for all criminal records is years away.

With record deficits, and effective local systems already in place to handle background checks, why should the President sign such an expensive bill? That, of course, is the thinking the gun lobby is counting on. By contrast, under the Brady bill, the $5-million to $10-million expense would be dispersed among local police departments using existing data banks. (States that choose to go beyond the federal standards are exempted from the 7-day wait; California already has a 15-day handgun waiting period.)

The NRA also opposes the Brady bill on the ground that the legislation violates the right to bear arms. But protections in the Second Amendment are not absolute: State legislatures and Congress have passed gun-control legislation limiting who can possess firearms, restricting the types of weapons that can be kept and mandating licensing and registration. The aim of the Brady bill--to protect the safety and welfare of Americans while acknowledging the right of hunters, marksmen and other responsible private citizens to own and use guns--is squarely within that long tradition.

TOO BLOODY: In recent years, handguns have been used in up to 50% of homicides committed in this country. Calls for a national waiting period are even more compelling in light of crime statistics just released by the FBI. The national murder rate rose by 10% in 1990 over 1989, and several American cities experienced even steeper increases. Homicides rose 12% in Los Angeles, 18% in New York and 24% in Houston.

Every living former President endorses the Brady bill; we hope that Congress and President Bush will exhibit the same wisdom.