GUN-CONTROL WATCH : Winning Streak

The California Department of Justice reports that for the second straight year the state-mandated waiting period for gun buyers worked exactly as it was intended.

Passed by the Legislature in 1990, the act requires law enforcement authorities to conduct background checks during 15 days between the purchase and the delivery of a handgun (in 1991 the mandatory wait was broadened to include rifles and shotguns).

Since its inception, the law has stopped 11,622 firearm transactions. Among the would-be buyers was a frightening fraternity of convicted felons, including more than 100 murderers, 304 sex offenders and 21 kidnapers.

Not everyone is delighted, of course. Critics, especially the National Rifle Assn., argue that the very criminals denied access to firearms through legitimate dealers will obtain guns anyway--illegally, through a thriving black market. In some instances they are undoubtedly right, but they’re missing the fundamental point: that the 15-day waiting period by itself was never intended to be a panacea for the problem of rampant gun violence in California. There is no magic bullet here. Rather, the waiting period, taken together with the semiautomatic weapons ban and tough enforcement of federal and state firearms laws, was designed to curb unlimited access to these dangerous weapons by the people who presented the most risk to the law-abiding public.

California’s 15-day waiting period proves that, if given the proper chance, sensible gun regulation can indeed serve a valuable purpose.