Stop Shooting Policy Blanks : Gun lobby should join Clinton Administration in seeking a seven-day waiting period

When the 103rd Congress convenes in January, there is one piece of unfinished business that it should go to work on right away: the passage of a nationwide seven-day period between purchase and delivery of a handgun in which the background of the buyer must be checked.

Last session, the House passed the so-called Brady bill by a resounding 239-186 margin, only to have the legislation die quietly as a slapped-on amendment to a controversial Senate omnibus crime bill that was defeated. This time, Congress should enact the Brady bill on its own merits.

Opponents, most notably the National Rifle Assn., have spent enormous amounts to try to sabotage the Brady bill and to politically threaten politicians who support it. The gun lobby defends its actions as efforts to achieve a better bill--federal legislation that would require instant background checks.

That’s a dubious argument. Instant checks would be very costly--and might not even be technically feasible. The NRA’s call for such legislation is a maneuver to block the Brady bill. Indeed, the NRA had been largely silent on instant background checks--except in 1991 House debates when an amendment including an instant check could have conveniently undermined the Brady legislation.

The NRA should participate in a rational debate on how best to end escalating gun violence. It should support the Brady bill, because once it is passed, all efforts can be directed toward constructing an expensive and elaborate (but potentially definitive) instant system.

The NRA continues to oppose sensible legislation for a federally mandated safety course or skills examination as a condition for purchasing a firearm. It also opposes any kind of eligibility rules for gun purchasers, such as prohibitions for persons with criminal records or histories of violence-linked mental illnesses. Fortunately in California, where a 15-day wait for firearms is required, nearly 6,000 people--including convicted murderers, rapists and robbers--were denied firearms in a single year, 1991.

In a campaign speech before police officers, Bill Clinton said: “ . . . We are crazy in this country for selling handguns to people who are underage, who have criminal records, who have mental history records, just because we don’t have the discipline to wait long enough to check out their background.”

Both federal and state law enforcement must work harder to tighten rules for firearm dealers and crack down on the thriving black market in stolen or otherwise illegally obtained firearms. The beleaguered Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms must also have more agents for assignment to problem cities and counties.