The Prime of Sarah Brady : Bill requiring waiting period for handgun buyers jumps a major obstacle

One cold day in March, 1981, a deranged man named John W. Hinckley Jr. lurched forward with a handgun and shot Ronald Reagan. The President would recover fully from his wound. Not so fortunate was his press secretary, who suffered lasting injury when one of Hinckley’s bullets entered his skull.

That day 12 1/2 years ago irreversibly changed not only the life of James Brady but that of his wife, Sarah. Faced with her husband’s partial paralysis and his need for extensive rehabilitation therapy, Sarah Brady was emotionally shattered. But within her grew a steely determination to alter America’s self-destructive path by working to toughen the nation’s ludicrously liberal gun laws.

A good measure of triumph and vindication came for her Wednesday, when the House of Representatives approved the national handgun waiting period bearing James Brady’s name. President Clinton has promised to sign the landmark legislation if it clears the Senate.

It has been a long, grinding fight for the Bradys. Through Handgun Control Inc., a group they lead, they have lobbied three Presidents and innumerable lawmakers in behalf of the Brady bill. Now, one titanic hurdle is gone.

Yet the measure represents only a modest gain in the struggle for better gun control. All it does is impose a five-day waiting period between purchase and delivery of a handgun. That wait gives local law enforcement officials time to check existing state databanks--if they so choose--for any criminal convictions or serious mental problems in the backgrounds of prospective buyers. It is a tiny step in the long march back to a sane and safe society. But this nonetheless important achievement might never have happened but for the efforts of one very determined Sarah Brady.