While President Bill Clinton exhorts the wonderfulness of the new nationwide FBI instant check system on firearms purchases in his Saturday morning radio address, prospective gun buyers are meeting with extraordinarily long delays and crashing computer errors. People's opinions may differ on the need for this national check system and the resulting ' Big Brother Data Base of Gun Purchases and Owners ', but the FBI should have a system that works, before they begin implimenting it. One anonymous gun purchaser had to wait over two hours at the retail store for his comfirmation, just to have the store clerk met with a dead compter connection, once the call finally went through to the FBI. Clinton said new computerized checks have prevented hundreds of felons and others from buying guns. I guess the ' others ' were those law abiding citizens whose authorizations were met with a malfunctioning computer, and thus no verification? Were these ' felons ' he talks about, arrested? He didn't say anything about that.

I live in a state where there is currently a waiting period on all firearms purchases ( except a certain class of antique long arms firing obsolete calibers ). When I was decades younger, there was no state legislated waiting period for long guns ( rifles and shotguns for the un-informed ), and individual cities had there own differing waiting periods on handguns ( all longer than the state mandated period ). What some people may not be aware of is; cities, counties and states are free to pass whatever waiting period suits their citizens. Obviously, the federal government is free to legislate any law governing the territory of the United States, providing it passes the test of Constitutionality. It may be that a small rural town in Idaho does not need a waiting period at all, but it could be argued large cities like Los Angeles or Chicago could warrant some form of waiting period ( they originally called it a cooling off period ).

Clinton also hammered the National Rifle Association for wanting to bar or defang the instant check program. I fault the NRA only with becoming a polictical action committee, to the detriment of their individual members and other non-political services they used to offer. NRA may be rightly criticizing the instant check system, as the beginnings of a national gun registry ( remember Hitler's Germany and Stalin's CCCP began their tyranny with these sort of fascist actions ). Even if the FBI or BATF claim to delete the records as temporary, can we really believe them? I feel the stare of Big Brother coming into my den!

Clinton did make good on his promises to organizations dedicated to ridding the country of all guns completely ( yes it's right in Handgun Control's original wish list ), when he promised to ask lawmakers to institute a waiting period for handgun purchases when the new Congress goes into session. Once again, cities and states are free to pass whatever waiting period they deem necessary for their own citizens; this may better address their local issues.

The President did say one intelligent thing this morning, when he said, he would seek legislation barring juveniles who commit violent crimes from ever owning a gun, in the next Congress. Amazingly, this action does directly address the actual problem; the individual ( criminal ) using the firearm. After all, has anyone ever seen a gun kill someone by itself?

Once again, I believe that the instant check system is a step designed to provide the federal government with a confiscation list, to be used once all guns are outlawed!

- Bongo ( When they criminalize gun ownership, only the criminals will have guns! )