House Subcommittee Backs Latest Gun Control Effort : Congress: The Brady bill calls for a waiting period on arms purchases. Lawmakers hope to finish action, send legislation to Clinton by Thanksgiving.

Facing its best chance of enactment in years, the long-debated gun control measure commonly called the Brady bill was easily approved by a House Judiciary subcommittee Friday on a 10-3 vote.

Sponsors of the measure said that they would seek the Judiciary Committee’s approval next week and ask for House action soon in hopes that the Senate also will give its assent and send the legislation to President Clinton before Thanksgiving.

“We’ve got the votes. . . . It’s a big thumbs up,” said a triumphant Sarah Brady, wife of former White House Press Secretary James Brady, for whom the bill is named. Brady suffered a severe head injury in 1981 when a gun-wielding assailant tried to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan.

The chief component of the bill is a provision that would require prospective buyers of handguns, rifles or shotguns to wait five days before completing their purchases so that law enforcement authorities could check their backgrounds for possible criminal records or evidence of mental problems.

It also would authorize $100 million for grants to states and cities to develop a system for making instant checks on prospective purchasers. When that system is 80% effective, the waiting period would be eliminated.

Supporters of the bill are optimistic about its passage because of rising public unrest over the spiraling rate of violent crime across the nation. Clinton, who supports the measure, has begun to make crime a major domestic issue.

But opponents contend that the measure is largely symbolic legislation that would have little real effect on street crime. While law-abiding citizens might be deterred from gun purchases, criminals can easily acquire guns illegally, they argue. One critic, Rep. Steven H. Schiff (R-N.M.), also argued that making the background checks would distract police from more effective crime fighting efforts.

In addition, Schiff and other opponents of the bill said it would prevent law-abiding citizens from buying guns immediately that might be needed for self-defense--in a case, for example, in which a woman is being stalked. Some critics also contend that the bill would place a new burden on states and localities charged with making the background checks without providing funds to pay for it.

The Brady bill, first introduced six years ago, has passed both the Senate and House in other versions but has never become law. A Republican-led filibuster in the Senate prevented a more comprehensive package of anti-crime legislation, which included the Brady bill, from being enacted in 1992.

This year, partly as a result of Mrs. Brady’s urging, the measure was introduced as separate legislation in the House, and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said that he intends to pursue a similar course in the Senate.

“This is the best shot we ever had,” said Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on crime and criminal justice.

“Of course the Brady bill will not stop crime overnight,” Schumer added. “It will simply help disarm violent criminals and others who are barred by existing law from owning firearms.”

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), a leading GOP backer of the Brady bill, said that the latest version is an improvement because it would end the five-day waiting period once police and gun dealers are able to make instant computer checks on would-be buyers.

But he warned: “The opponents will use every parliamentary trick in the book to prevent it from becoming law.”

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), one of the members of the House subcommittee to vote against the legislation, said that its passage would build high hopes but deliver little.

“Criminals don’t go to gun stores,” Smith said. “The only real answer to gun violence is swift, severe punishment for criminals who use guns.”

Similar arguments, along with proposals for construction of additional prisons and longer prison sentences for violent offenders, were repeated at a discussion of pending crime bills sponsored by the House Republican leadership.