Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9311280074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Medium
The bill, passed this week by Congress, mandates a nationwide five-day waiting period for gun purchases.
It will go into effect 90 days after President Clinton signs it, which he has promised to do. The bills would establish a nationwide waiting period for five years, during which time state and local governments are supposed to set up ways to make quick computerized background checks of prospective handgun buyers.
Randolph Rollins, state secretary of public safety, said Wednesday that Virginia would be exempt from the five-day waiting period because the state already has a computerized system that quickly checks whether a prospective buyer has a criminal record.
Nonetheless, the legislation has sent buyers into Virginia gun shops.
"Business has been brisk ever since it's been on the front page of the paper," said Robb Roudabush of Old Town Armory in Alexandria, as a half-dozen customers examined handguns and ammunition.
At many Northern Virginia gun shops Friday, business was better than usual, and many customers talked of how the Brady bill was an encouragement to buy now. Steve Whitener, a lobbyist for Gun Owners of America and a Loudoun County supervisor, predicted that the Brady bill will face court challenges and said citizens worried about their right to buy guns will create "a huge rush buying firearms."
Supporters generally say that by eliminating wide disparities among gun-sale practices across the country, the measure will curb gunrunning in the more than 20 states that do not require background checks. Opponents say the measure will keep firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens but will not keep criminals from getting guns.
Greg Podgurski of Arlington said he took his father to Old Town Armory to show him "how easy it is" to buy a handgun. Podgurski, a nurse in the emergency room at D.C. General Hospital, said he sees a constant stream of handgun victims and that the Brady bill "falls way short."
"There's no legitimate use for handguns in this country, outside of law enforcement," he said.
Col. Michael Young, chief of police in Fairfax County, said the bill is "a first step. I don't see it in and of itself as being the solution" to violent crime. He said background checks and waiting periods "may be a factor" for unstable people trying to obtain weapons in a hurry.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.