The Brady Bill

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of the
prospective buyers to make sure that guns are not sold to convicted felons or to
those who are mentally unstable. Even the proponents of the bill agreed that
the effect of the bill on curbing the gun violence might be minimal considering
the fact that the majority of guns used for criminal purposes were purchased
through illegal dealers. However, the Brady Bill represented the first major
gun control legislation passed by Congress for more than 20 years, and it meant
a significant victory for gun control advocates in their way toward even
stricter gun control legislation in the future.

Gun Rights vs. Gun Control
The Brady bill, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, was first
introduced by Edward F. Feighan (D-OH) in the House of the100th Congress as
HR975 on February 4, 1987. The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee,
and the debate began. Throughout the debate on the Brady bill, there was always
a clear partisan split; most of the Democrats, except for ...

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as 7 years to become a law.
On the other side, the advocates of the bill enjoyed a wide support from
the public as well as from the Handgun Control Inc., the chief gun control lobby
led by Sarah Brady, the wife of James Brady. The consistent public support for
the bill from the introduction through the passage of the bill was manifested by
many polls. One of the polls conducted by NBC News and Wall Street Journal on
the enactment of the bill said that 74 percent of the 1,002 respondents agreed
that "the law is good but more is needed."2 It is without question that this
public support played a significant role in the eventual passage of the bill.
The Brady bill passed the House in ...

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