FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AG
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1996                       (202) 616-2777
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

ON SECOND ANNIVERSARY, RUBIN AND RENO HAIL BRADY ACT'S SUCCESS IN
       LIMITING ILLEGAL HANDGUN SALES AND FIGHTING CRIME

    More than 60,000 Felons, Fugitives and Other Prohibited
                       Purchasers Stopped

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two years after the Brady Act took effect,
Attorney General Janet Reno and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin
said that it is working the way it should and warned against any
efforts to repeal it.

     The Treasury Department estimates that the Act has stopped
more than 60,000 felons, fugitives and other prohibited purchasers
from buying handguns over the counter in the last two years.

     The Act and other crime-fighting measures, say Reno and Rubin,
helped reduce national crime violent crime rates by 4 percent in
1994, and another 5 percent in the first half of 1995.  Firearms
were used in 6 percent fewer assaults in 1994 than in 1993.

     When President Clinton signed the Act into law in November
1993, the Brady Act -- named for Jim Brady, the former press
secretary to President Ronald Reagan who was seriously injured in
a 1981 assassination attempt -- established up to a five-business
day waiting period for handgun purchases, affording local law
enforcement authorities a chance to determine if the sale is
prohibited by law.

     "Each month the Brady Act is preventing nearly 2,500 criminals
from buying guns while permitting law-abiding citizens to do so,"
said Rubin.  "Gun dealers and their customers have now had time to
adjust to the simple Brady background form as a necessary means of
denying guns to criminally dangerous individuals."

     Reno added, "Brady Act checks are also helping local police
identify and arrest gun-buying criminals, often on other serious
charges.  The Brady checks have helped law enforcement arrest
murderers, drug dealers, fugitives, wife-beaters and other
criminals."


Brady Act Success

     Just this month, for example, a Brady check helped the Wichita
County Sheriff stop a handgun sale to a man who had battered and
threatened to kill his ex-wife and children. He was under a
restraining order.

     Another Brady check in October 1995 helped ATF agents
apprehend a convicted murderer as he tried to buy three handguns in
Dekalb County, Georgia.  Before the Brady Act, he had purchased at
least 8 other guns without being challenged.  He has since been
convicted of violating federal firearms laws and awaits a prison
sentence of up to ten years. 

     And last April, a Brady check helped ATF agents and local
police apprehend a convicted heroin dealer and fugitive as he
attempted to buy a handgun in Blair County, Pennsylvania.  Prior to
Brady, he had bought at least seven other guns without challenge
and traded them to support his crack addiction.  He is now serving
two years in prison on various charges.

     Leading law enforcement officials also expressed their support
for the Act.  

     "It is clear, on this second anniversary of the Brady Act,
that the waiting period has prevented thousands of criminals from
obtaining firearms, and has saved lives," said Gilbert G. Gallegos,
National President of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). 
"Members of the FOP continue to be impressed with the cooperation
between the ATF and local law enforcement in implementing the Brady
Act."  

     International Association of Chiefs of Police President (IACP)
David Walchak noted, "The IACP strongly pushed for Congress to pass
legislation to allow for a five-day waiting period to conduct
thorough background checks on all prospective handgun purchasers. 
The IACP continues to strongly support the Brady Act."

     Reno also pointed to the Act's other benefits.  "The Brady Act
has been a catalyst for improvements in automating the nation's
criminal history records, helping us prepare for twenty-first
century crime fighting," she said.  "In the last two years, the
Justice Department has made more than $130 million available to
states and worked with localities to help them automate their
criminal history records -- improvements that will also help track
sex offenders, domestic abusers and child molesters, and help
child-care facilities and nursing homes screen potential employees.How It Works

     Federal law prohibits possession of a handgun by a variety of
persons:  convicted felons, fugitives from justice, persons under
indictment, persons subject to restraining orders for alleged
domestic violence, illegal drug users, persons who have been
adjudicated "mentally defective" or committed to mental
institutions, persons who have renounced U.S. citizenship, persons
dishonorably discharged from the military, illegal aliens and
generally, persons under 18.

     The Brady Act requires prospective purchasers to complete a
form that is forwarded to the chief law enforcement officer where
the buyer resides.  Law enforcement has five business days to check
an applicant's record and advise the gun dealer as to whether or
not the purchase is legal.  However, a legal purchaser need not
wait five days if law enforcement approves the purchase sooner.  If
the dealer receives no answer in five days, the sale can go
forward.


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