Clinton to Seek Delay in Handgun Sales

President Clinton said he will ask Congress for a law to require a “cooling-off period” of several days before a prospective handgun sale, even though a new FBI system has made background checking quicker.

“We must do even more to support the people and the laws that protect our children and families,” Clinton said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

A new FBI instant-check system, which took effect Monday and governs the purchase of handguns, shotguns and rifles, replaced a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases only.

Clinton’s radio address was delivered on a day when he journeyed to Wynne, Ark., to deliver the eulogy at a funeral service for his gubernatorial chief of staff, William Maurice Smith Jr., 77, who died Thursday.

The new gun-checking system uses a toll-free telephone number that gun dealers must call to relay information about prospective gun buyers to the FBI for computer record checks, which are often completed within minutes.

Clinton said during the first four days, 100,000 prospective guns sales were reviewed and 400 felons, fugitives, stalkers and other prohibited purchasers were stopped.

However, the president still wants handgun purchasers to face waiting periods of three to five days, partly so law enforcement officials can check additional, non-computerized records.

The president also scolded the National Rifle Assn. for filing a lawsuit against the new background check system. The suit charges that the Justice Department is violating Americans’ privacy by keeping records on gun buyers.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the group wants to see the new system work but said the Brady Act, which requires a background check before a gun can be legitimately sold, forbids establishing a national registry of gun purchasers.

In the GOP weekly radio talk, Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. of Florida said he is confident that lawmakers from both parties can work together and make sure retired Americans receive the benefits they deserve.

But, he warned, some of those paying into the system now may not get the benefits they are entitled to in 30 years, as the funds in the system begin to shrink.

The system should be fair to current and future retirees and must improve fairness across generations, Shaw said.

In Arkansas, Clinton and about four dozen relatives and friends bade goodbye to Smith.

“Farewell, old friend,” Clinton said, recalling Smith’s own consolation to him when Clinton lost his governor’s seat in 1980.

The president saluted his former mentor as someone who “loved a good fight, but he never sought to destroy his adversary.”

Smith’s alliance with Clinton dated to his first winning political campaign, for state attorney general, in 1976.