Gun Law Blocking Sales at Record Rate, Author Says

SACRAMENTO —  A new gun control law is screening out prohibited purchasers of firearms in such large numbers that it seems certain in the next few months to eclipse the number of sales rejected during the entire year of 1990, the author of the statute said Thursday.

Assemblyman Lloyd Connelly (D-Sacramento) reported on the “great success” of the 4-month-old law, which established a 15-day waiting period for the purchase of all firearms and sharply curtailed sales of guns to mentally disturbed people and individuals with a history of gun- and violence-related misdemeanors.

Citing figures compiled by the state Division of Law Enforcement, Connelly noted that background checks between Jan. 1 and April 30 resulted in the rejection of 1,785 prospective purchases, or 1% of the 163,140 transactions submitted for background checks.

By contrast, in 1990, 2,437 gun buyers were turned down, representing a denial of 0.7% of the total 330,322 checks that were made.

Connelly noted that the rejections during the first four months of the new law equaled 75% of all the denials issued last year. He forecast that at this rate a record would be set much sooner than previous forecasts had estimated.

The figures showed that 911 people were denied a gun purchase because of a misdemeanor record, 780 because of felonies and 94 for other reasons such as being on probation, being too young to buy a firearm or having a history of dangerous mental illness.