From: wood@eisley.akita.com (Ken Wood)
Newsgroups: seattle.general
Subject: Waiting periods
Summary: Some cases where waiting periods are a bad idea.
Keywords: guns crime waiting periods
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 08:00:35 PDT
Organization: Mos Eisley Spaceport BBS


     Here are some incidents taht illustrate why a waiting period can 
really be a bad idea.  Also I found some intersting numbers.  These are 
based on the states that currently have waiting periods.  

     Only one in 10,000 background checks for firearm purchases result 
in an arrest.  There are many more denials but most of these are based 
on inncorect data and are overturned on appeal.  This results in a cost 
of $40,000 per arrest ( not conviction ).  This is more than the yearly 
salery for a police officer.  How many arrests could an extra police 
officer make in a year.  This is in addition to the $7 to $9 extra cost 
the gun buyer has to pay.  Is this really cost effective?  I don't think 
so.  Well here are the stories.
   

     The issue is not hypothetical. In September 1990, a mail carrier named
Catherine Latta of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to the police to obtain
permission to buy a handgun. Her ex-boyfriend had previously robbed her,
assaulted her several times, and raped her. The clerk at the sheriff s office
informed her the gun permit would take two to four weeks. "I told her I'd be
dead by then," Ms. Latta later recalled. That afternoon, she went to a bad
part of town, and bought an illegal $20 semi-automatic pistol on the street.
Five hours later, her ex-boyfriend attacked her outside her house, and she
shot him dead. The county prosecutor decided not to prosecute Ms. Latta for
either the self-defense homicide, or the illegal gun.[120]

     In 1985 in San Leandro, California, a woman and her daughter were
threatened by a neighbor. Instead of being able immediately to obtain a
handgun for self-defense, the woman had to wait 15 days. The day after she
finally was allowed to pick up her gun, the neighbor attacked them, and she
shot him in self-defense. Had the man attacked 14 days after his initial
threat, rather than 16 days after, the woman and her daughter would have been
raped. Of course the state of California would have denied liability, as it
has repeatedly denied liability for its failure to protect citizens against
specific threats from specific criminals.

     The national waiting period proposal does allow a waiver of the 7-day
wait if the locality's chief law enforcement official (or his designee)
issues a written order stating that immediate purchase is necessary to
protect the life of the gun purchaser or someone in her household.[121] In
practical terms, it is very doubtful that a potential crime victim
(particularly the poor and minorities who are the victims of most violent
crime), will be able to obtain a rapid appointment with the police
administrator who will issue a gun authorization. If the administrator is out
of town, or busy, or uninterested, the victim is out of luck. And if the
potential victim is receiving threatening phone calls that deal only with
rape, aggravated assault, or mayhem, even a sympathetic police chief cannot
issue an exemption, since there is no threat to the victim's life.

     Some of the people killed by a waiting period could, ironically, be
people who have volunteered to defend the United States. Members of the armed
forces are allowed to carry personal handguns as sidearms, if they so choose.
Many infantry grunts might want a Colt .45 or a Glock 9mm on their hip, in
case their government-issue M-16 rifle jams in a firelight. Television
stations in Texas and Alabama reported high levels of sales of 9 millimeter
handguns to servicemen shipping out to Saudi Arabia. But in states like
California, with a minimum wait of 15 days, the short period between
notification of call-up and departure date is not enough time for a soldier
to be cleared by the firearms control apparatus. As a result, soldiers from
California and similar states were placed in greater peril.[122]  Happily,
the rapid collapse of the Iraqi army reduced the importance of back-up
sidearms. 




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