Background checks fire up gun buyers

Waiting to buy shotguns at the Olde English Gun Shoppe didn't anger Bob Niday and Dwayne Petty so much. It was the reason they were waiting.

It took 10 to 15 minutes for shop workers to complete a background check on the two Ohio men Monday. It was the first day for a new federal system that requires the check for all firearms purchases -- not just handguns."I think it's stupid for the simple reason that robbers and murderers are not going to walk into a gun store and buy a gun," said Niday, 54.

"It's silly to me," added Petty, 27. "It's a way for the government to find out what the honest people have in their homes."

The men waiting in the western Ohio village of Ginghamsburg were among many discontented gun buyers across the nation Monday as technical delays slowed things down.

In Holden, Maine, gun dealer Ralph McLeod said he made 25 calls to the computerized background check system and got constant busy signals Monday morning. A young customer waiting to buy a $225 semiautomatic handgun was turned away as a result.

An estimated 12.4 million firearms are sold each year in the United States. All will be covered by background checks, as will an additional 2.5 million annual transactions when an owner retrieves a firearm from a pawn shop.

The new system is required under the Brady Act, which established federal background checks for handgun purchasers almost five years ago. Now people buying rifles and shotguns must submit to checks, too.

The Justice Department has given states $200 million in the past few years to help them computerize their records. The FBI says that once the system is working smoothly, approvals should take just three minutes.

Activists on both sides of the gun control debate have serious problems with the background checks.

The National Rifle Association said it will sue over the system, which it calls "an illegal national registration of gun owners."

And groups like Handgun Control say the new law is too lax because it decreases the time officials have to research a potential buyer. Under the old law, they had as long as five days if they needed it. Under the new law, they have three.

Federal law prohibits the purchase of guns by felons, the mentally ill and people convicted of domestic violence. States can add other categories.