Police Checks Block 70,000 Handgun Sales

Police background checks on 2.6 million would-be handgun buyers last year prevented the sales of 70,000 guns, more than two-thirds of them sought by people convicted or charged with felonies, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Since the Brady Act requiring such checks took effect in early 1994, through 1996 about 250,000 handgun and long-gun sales were blocked under that law or state background-check laws, the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found. They included 173,000 handgun sales, on which the report focused.

“It’s extremely heartening to demonstrate again that the Brady law is one of the great legislative successes of the ‘90s,” said Naomi Paiss, spokeswoman for Handgun Control Inc., which led the battle to get the legislation enacted.

But the National Rifle Assn., which supports only instant checks, criticized the lack of prosecution of those who try to buy guns illegally.

“Excusing 250,000 criminals from a prison term is hardly a reason for celebration,” said NRA spokesman Tom Wyld. “We believe that the instant check remains the superior system in part because the instant check facilitates the instant apprehension of a prohibited person. . . . The wait-based system prompts flight.”

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the federal government could not force state and local authorities to conduct the Brady Act’s background checks, but left intact its five-day waiting period for a handgun purchase. Most law enforcement officials in the 23 states affected, states that lack their own background check laws, have continued the checks.

Under the Brady law, the waiting period will be eliminated when a national computerized instant background check is established by November 1998.