5-Day Wait on Handgun Sales OKd by Senate

In a breakthrough compromise on the controversial Brady bill, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to require a five-day waiting period for handgun buyers until a national system of instant background checks has been developed.

Top Senate leaders said that their bipartisan measure split the difference between the seven-day waiting period approved by the House last month and a computerized instant-check plan sought by the National Rifle Assn. as a substitute.

The proposal, attached to an omnibus crime bill on a 67-32 vote, would apply to the 24 states that lack a waiting period for gun purchases. The waiting periods would have to be dropped once a system that instantly checks criminal records was phased in over five years.

But the 26 states that already have waiting periods--including California with its 15-day wait--could keep them permanently even after tying into the national checking system.

Police organizations and gun control groups eagerly embraced the compromise plan as an effective curb on handgun violence, but the NRA and its legislative allies sharply denounced the measure as an infringement on gun owners’ rights.

The resounding vote for the proposal was one of the most decisive setbacks ever suffered by the gun lobby. Both Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and John Seymour (R-Calif.) voted for the measure, although Seymour earlier had supported an NRA-backed attempt to kill the Brady bill before it was modified.

The gun lobby’s defeat was compounded when the Senate, by voice vote, also included in its crime bill a ban on 14 domestic models of semiautomatic assault weapons.

Sources said the House is likely to accept the waiting-period compromise. President Bush has expressed dislike for a waiting period, but has indicated he would accept one if it is included in an omnibus crime bill to his liking.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Judy Smith said the Administration was pleased with most major provisions of the crime legislation, which the Senate is expected to finish quickly after returning from its Fourth of July recess. But she said no position had been taken on the Brady bill compromise.

That proposal is named after former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady and his wife, Sarah, the head of Handgun Control Inc., both of whom lobbied vigorously for its approval.

“I wish they had done this 11 years ago, but better late than never,” said the wheelchair-bound Brady after the Senate vote. He sustained a grave head wound in the 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan.

Calling the NRA “a defeated empire,” he added with a grin, “They still have a whale of a budget, but they’re beached.”

The Bradys appeared at a news conference with two key authors of the compromise, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

Explaining why he had worked so hard to get a deal amid warring GOP colleagues, Dole--whose right arm was disabled in a World War II battle--said: “When you have felt the sting of a gunshot wound, you know how Sarah Brady feels and how Jim Brady feels.”

Under the compromise Brady bill provisions, states currently without waiting periods would have to make prospective handgun buyers wait five business days while police run a background check. For the time being, the search would have to be done manually in many states.

The U.S. attorney general would be given six months to select computer technology for an instant-check system under which gun dealers would check criminal records by phone just as they now check credit cards.

Meanwhile, the attorney general would establish a timetable for each state to deliver its felony conviction records to the national system.

Those records would have to go back five years and show, in at least 80% of cases, whether arrests resulted in convictions. If a state failed to meet those standards, it would have to continue imposing a five-day waiting period until it passed muster.

The government would give states $100 million to help them update records and set up a checking system.

Within two to five years of the bill’s enactment, the attorney general could lift a state’s waiting period by certifying that it had qualified for the instant-check system.

If a state lagged in its efforts, the attorney general could withhold up to 50% of its federal grants for law enforcement. And if the Justice Department dragged its feet, Congress could withhold from 5% to 10% of its administrative funds.

Staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.