
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993                   TAG: 9307080209
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FBI DIRECTOR SUPPORTS HANDGUN WAITING PERIOD

FBI Director William Sessions, in a sharp break with tradition, has proposed putting the bureau on record as supporting legislation to require a waiting period for handgun purchases, a Justice Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Sessions included the idea in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno as part of a six-point plan for fighting handgun violence, spokesman Carl Stern confirmed.

The FBI has rarely, if ever, taken a position on pending legislation.

Sessions told Reno, however, that he recently convened a meeting to seek ways of reducing handgun violence and that one of the proposals to emerge was support for the Brady Bill, which would create a waiting period, Stern said.

The spokesman said Reno had apparently not yet reviewed the letter, which had been sent to her on Tuesday.

by CNB