THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240014
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 37 lines
I write in response to the Dec. 31 letter from R. A. Benzel, who wondered what happened to the Brady Bill and midnight basketball. The implication was that the Brady Bill should have stopped more teens from becoming killers.
The writer and others should know that, at last count, more than 72,000 felons have been stopped from purchasing a handgun because of the Brady Bill. That is the equivalent of 85 felons each day who did not walk out of a gun store with a handgun. This is exactly why Brady became law. It allows time for police to research the background of the firearms purchaser for felony convictions and other reasons for ineligibility - in most states, five days are allowed for this process. In Virginia, we are exempted from the five-day wait to purchase firearms because we can check backgrounds with a computerized check by the state police.
A limitation to the Brady Bill is that only purchases made from federally licensed gun dealers are subject to background check. A pawn shop or a private owner can sell or transfer a gun without checking the background or age of the purchaser. That is a major reason so many minors and criminals can circumvent the law and have access to guns.
Firearms dealers who are required to complete the background check should cry out for uniformity in the law so that all purchasers undergo the same background check by the state police. Uniformity could easily be accomplished by requiring that gun sales take place at stores operated by a federally licensed dealer or that purchasers obtain an eligibility background check from a firearm dealer prior to taking possession of guns purchased from individuals.
All citizens would be safer from gun violence if all gun purchasers were subject to a background check by the State Police.
ALICE MOUNTJOY
Norfolk, Jan. 11, 1997