New Law Blocks Sale of 1,275 Guns So Far

SACRAMENTO —  The new state law requiring prospective gun purchasers to wait 15 days before taking possession of virtually any firearm has blocked the sale of 1,275 weapons during the first three months of the year, it was reported Wednesday.

The state Department of Justice said the number that were turned down represented 1.03% of the 123,046 applications for handguns, rifles and shotguns submitted to state screeners for criminal and mental history checks.

By contrast, during all of 1990--when only handgun purchasers were subjected to background investigations--0.7%, or 2,437, applications were rejected. Historically, the number of denials issued for pistols and revolvers fell short of reaching 1%.

The 15-day wait law, which took effect last Jan. 1, is aimed at keeping firearms from dangerously mentally ill and criminals, including those with records of certain misdemeanor crimes related to firearms offenses or violence.

Assemblyman Lloyd Connelly (D-Sacramento), who overcame stiff opposition of gun owner lobbies last year to win narrow passage of the bill, said he was pleased by the number of applications that were turned down during the first three months of the statute’s implementation.

“The law is doing what it is supposed to do,” Connelly said. “The numbers are very encouraging. At this rate, we will clearly hit 5,000 (denials) this year.”

For years, California has required purchasers of pistols and revolvers to wait 15 days before taking possession of a gun while a background investigation was run. The so-called “Brady bill” in Congress, endorsed last week by former President Ronald Reagan, contains the same concept, except it would establish a seven-day wait nationwide for purchase only of handguns.

The California law for revolvers and pistols was extended Jan. 1 to recreational shotguns and rifles. It also expanded the list of people prohibited from possessing a firearm to include those with a record of offenses such as simple assault and battery, brandishing a gun, shooting at an uninhabited building and those having been held involuntarily for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation.

During the first three months of the law, prospective purchasers of 366 rifles and shotguns were rejected because of violations of the state penal code, federal firearms laws or court rulings relating to conditions of probation and restraining orders.

“That’s 366 people who didn’t freely purchase rifles or shotguns who otherwise would have,” said Gene Erbin, a legislative consultant who helped guide the bill through the Legislature.

The expanded list of crimes also appears to have put handguns further out of reach of the “prohibited” buyers. So far this year, 909 handgun sales have been blocked. During all of 1990, 2,437 handgun sales were denied.

Heading the top of the denial list were 690 prospective buyers with criminal records for assault. The legislation expanded the application of the assault prohibition to include aggravated and simple assault. Last year, the screening process identified 769 people with aggravated assault records who tried to buy a handgun.

Shelley Rife, veteran manager of the Justice Department’s firearms screening unit, said that while the figures are only for three months, “We suspect at this point that the assault and batteries are going to have the largest impact on increasing the number of prohibited purchasers.”

Connelly and Rife expressed surprise that guns had been denied to only four people on grounds that they constituted a danger to themselves and others. During legislative debate last year, the dangerous mentally ill had been cited as potentially one of the largest targets of the bill.

Although the law was aimed chiefly at retail sales by gun dealers, it also applies to exchanges of firearms between private individuals, who earlier had been widely believed to be ignoring the new law. Rife said 519 handgun and 284 long gun transactions were made privately during the three-month period and two were denied.