GOP Filibuster Stymies Action on Brady Bill : Congress: Senate Republicans hold out for NRA-advocated change in gun-control legislation.

WASHINGTON — Republicans, urged on by the influential gun lobby, staged a filibuster Friday that prevented the Senate from voting on the so-called Brady bill, a controversial measure that would impose a five-day waiting period on handgun buyers.

Advocates of the legislation fell three votes short of the 60 votes required to stop debate and force a roll call vote Friday afternoon, losing 57 to 42.

Senate leaders, hoping to work out differences over the bill, scheduled a second attempt to invoke cloture and end the filibuster late Friday night.

The House has already approved the measure, and Senate advocates of the legislation had hoped to obtain passage before lawmakers adjourn for the year next week. If they fail, the bill could be brought up again next year.

President Clinton, attending the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Seattle, expressed his disappointment at the filibuster, saying that passage of the bill has been delayed too long.

“The attack against it--that it will not solve all the gun violence in the United States--ignores the fact that it will solve some of our problems by actually permitting us to do a weapons check of the criminal and mental health backgrounds of people who want to buy handguns,” Clinton said. “I hope the Senate will reconsider its filibuster and permit the majority to rule.”

The bill--named for former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, who was severely wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan--calls for a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases in order to allow law enforcement officials to check the backgrounds of would-be buyers for criminal records or evidence of mental health problems.

It also authorizes $200 million a year in grants to help states convert record-keeping operations to computer files so that gun dealers eventually could make instantaneous checks.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who orchestrated the filibuster, said the bill would be acceptable with one major change: a provision that would nullify state laws providing for longer waiting periods once the computer systems are in place.

However, the Senate rejected such a provision by a 54-45 margin.

Despite objections from Brady bill sponsors, the Senate accepted, 56 to 43, another Dole-backed provision to terminate the five-day wait after five years even if the so-called “instant check” system is not yet fully operational.

Both the nullification of state laws--such as California’s 15-day waiting period for handgun purchases--and the five-year limit on the national waiting period were advocated by the National Rifle Assn. and its allies in the Senate.

“It’s a question of whether we have the courage to stand up to the NRA,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), the bill’s chief advocate.

“People around here are scared to death of that organization,” added Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.).

In one sign of defiance of the NRA’s political power, however, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that he had decided to break with the organization over its resistance to the undiluted Brady bill.

Noting that he had voted in support of the NRA “without exception” for nearly a quarter of a century, Reid said: “There comes a time when a person’s conscience won’t let him walk that plank anymore. . . . It’s something that’s very difficult for me to do, but I feel it’s the right thing. Whatever political consequences flow from this, I am ready to accept them.”

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), an NRA board member, argued that crime rates are rising most rapidly in states with the most stringent gun laws. The Brady bill, he said, only “creates an illusion” of dealing with violent crime.

His argument was rebutted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the attempt to nullify state laws imposing stronger restraints on gun buyers is a “poison pill” designed to kill the Brady bill.

The California waiting period works, she contended, and she cited figures compiled by the state indicating that its law blocked the sale of handguns to almost 16,000 criminals in the last three years.

But Craig said citizens who tried to buy guns for self-defense after the Los Angeles riots were barred from doing so because of the 15-day waiting period.

“Waiting periods are obsolete,” he said. “Citizens are arming themselves at an extremely rapid rate. We know that.”

“Let’s face it--the Brady bill is more symbolic than substance,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who said he would vote against the measure.

Without the provision to cancel state waiting periods longer than five days, Craig said, “this bill will probably fail.”

On the key roll call, 48 Democrats and nine Republicans voted to end the filibuster while 35 Republicans and seven Democrats opposed the attempt to bring the Brady bill to a vote.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), noting that polls indicate a vast majority of the American people favor the Brady bill, said: “Let the American people know--if this bill dies, it dies because of the Republican senators’ filibuster.”