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WASHINGTON - February 24 - James and Sarah Brady today joined Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Chafee (R-RI), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), at the Capitol to announce the introduction of legislation to permanently reinstate the Brady Waiting Period on gun purchases.  Legislation will also be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. John Porter (R-IL).  Also joining Mr. and Mrs. Brady and the lawmakers were representatives from law enforcement and Chris Sleater, a victim of gun violence from Salt Lake City, Utah, whose wife Anne was shot and killed at her office in January.

The five-day waiting period for handgun purchasers required by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, or Brady Law, expired on November 30, 1998.  It has been replaced by a National Instant Check System (NICS), which relies on computerized federal data to immediately check prospective firearms purchasers for felony convictions and other barriers to purchase. NICS does not include some state and local police records, such as records of persons convicted of certain offenses, like stalking, and does not include outstanding misdemeanor warrants on domestic violence or records of involuntary commitments to mental hospitals. What’s more, without a mandatory waiting period, local police departments do not have time to contribute information to the background check, and gun purchasers considering crimes of passion or impulse suicides will no longer have a "cooling-off" period to protect themselves or their victims.

"A brief waiting period allows tempers to cool and can give our law enforcement officials an opportunity to stop questionable purchasers," said Senator Dick Durbin, the leading cosponsor of the legislation in the Senate to restore the Brady Waiting Period.  "It’s hard to understand why a person would need a gun immediately.  Bringing back the waiting period isn’t about more government, it’s about fewer gun crime victims."

The impact of the expiration of the Brady Waiting Period has already impacted the Sleater family: Anne was the victim of a disturbed woman who had never owned a gun but was able to purchase one in less than an hour and use it in a shooting spree 24 hours later.  The woman had a history of mental illness;  a waiting period might have altered her state of mind, alerted her family to her dangerous intentions, and/or permitted local police to determine that her mental health status would have precluded her purchase of a gun.  Without the "cooling-off’ period, individuals contemplating suicide have easier access to firearms when they are most vulnerable, angry family members have the immediate opportunity to buy a gun before their tempers have cooled, and the mentally-ill who have violent intentions have legally acquired firearms without a thorough background check.

 "A waiting period is not just a waiting period. It’s a matter of life and death," said Jim Brady, the former press secretary to President Ronald Reagan and long-time gun violence prevention advocate.

"We need to protect other Anne Sleaters from the disturbed, distressed or angry people who could use lethal firearms to act on their impulses," said Sarah Brady, chair of Handgun Control, Inc.   "This Congress, which begins its work in the aftermath of a solemn and saddening process, has a special challenge to come together to serve the public safety of the American people.  I call on that Congress to make the same sensible decision it made more than five years ago.  Restore the waiting period, and restore the peace of mind that we all deserve."

Since the implementation of the Brady Law in February 1994, almost a quarter-million prohibited purchasers have been stopped from buying handguns in gun stores, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.  Additionally, a 1997 study by the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence demonstrated that states that began conducting background checks on purchasers when the Brady Act was implemented in 1994 are as much as 86% less likely to be sources of guns used in crimes in other states than they were to when the checks were performed.

February 28, 1999 marks the five-year anniversary of the passage of the Brady Law.  The law, first introduced in 1987, took seven years to pass Congress.  The sunset provisions eliminating the waiting period after five years in favor of the Instant Check were contained in a successful amendment sponsored by the National Rifle Association (NRA).  The amendment’s passge allowed the NRA to claim victory to its membership and to the public - despite the fact that approximately 90% of American strongly support a waiting period for firearms.

"I commend Senator Durbin, Congressman John Porter and the rest of our friends in the Congress for introducing this important legislation," Mrs. Brady said.  "To allow this nation to return to cash-and-carry tragedies is unimaginable."

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Handgun Control, Inc., chaired by Sarah Brady, is the nation’s largest citizens’ gun control lobbying organization. Based in Washington, DC, HCI works to enact stronger federal, state and local gun control laws, but does not seek to ban handguns.  Founded in 1974, HCI has more than 400,000 members nationwide and works with local groups around the country to enact and protect reasonable gun control laws.