Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993 TAG: 9310010246
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
As a House Judiciary subcommittee opened hearings on the legislation, both sides in the long-running debate over gun control agreed that a bill carrying the name of former presidential press secretary Jim Brady is likely to pass Congress this year.
But the pro- and anti-gun forces were divided over the form that law is likely to take, including what will happen to the issue most identified with Brady's name - a waiting period for gun purchases.
Following the hearing, Sarah Brady said she is confident Congress will approve a five-day waiting period.
"I'm sure we're going to get it this year. This time we really feel like it's here," said Brady, the chair of Handgun Control Inc. and a leader in the gun-control movement since her husband was wounded in an assassination attempt on then-President Reagan 12 years ago.
But Richard Gardiner, legislative counsel for the National Rifle Association, said the NRA won't give in without a fight. A filibuster and other maneuvers remain options, he said.
Pro-gun forces will argue that the country could move rapidly to adopt an instant records check, just as Virginia did in 1989. If Congress agreed, the Brady Bill might be stripped of what the NRA considers its worst feature - the waiting period.
While many Americans think the Brady Bill is synonymous with a waiting period, the 1993 version has evolved greatly from its original ancestor in 1987. Under the new version, which reflects a compromise made last year, the waiting period will be removed as soon as a nationwide "insta-check" system is in place.
Handgun Control Inc. agreed to that compromise, hoping individual states will continue the waiting period once they become used to it.
The change in the Congressional debate comes as Mary Sue Terry, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, is building her campaign around a state proposal for a five-day waiting period and arguing that instant checks don't catch everyone who should be denied a gun. Republican nominee George Allen says the instant-check system already in place makes a waiting period unnecessary.
Under the instant-check system, in place in just five states, gun dealers contact local or state police before selling a gun. The police, in turn, plug into a nationwide computer system identifying felons and individuals with records of mental illness. Sales go forward only if the buyer comes out clean.
The bill does not set a time limit for establishing the nationwide check system, but financial aid to the Justice Department to pay for the work would start phasing out after 2 1/2 years.
Assistant Atty. Gen. Eleanor Acheson, who represented the Justice Department at the hearing, said "it is unrealistic" to expect the system to be operating that quickly.
But Gardiner pointed to Virginia, which put its system in place in only nine months, as proof that the country could move much more quickly. Thirty-nine states already have fully automated systems providing a master list of felons dating to the 1950s, and nine others have partially automated master lists, he said.
"It's remarkably simple to do. You can do it out of patrol cars," he said.
Aside from the debate over insta-check, the greatest departure Thursday from previous Brady Bill hearings was the open support of the Justice Department.
During the Reagan and Bush administrations, gun-control groups fought their battle alone. But the support of President Clinton and national polls indicating overwhelming public backing have bolstered their confidence.
"This is a major turning point for us," said Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., House sponsor of the Brady Bill and the subcommittee chairman, as Acheson began her testimony.
In an interview, Richard Aborn, president of Handgun Control Inc., predicted that the Senate will act on the bill by the second or third week of October. In the House, the bill has been attached to the omnibus crime bill - a tactic that helped kill it last year.
Gardiner said he expects the House will move first. "It's so foggy out there right now. . . . Positions just haven't solidified enough to tell" about strategy, he said.
by CNB