The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino as co-chairs, joined more than 50 survivors of recent mass shootings to urge Congress Tuesday to reform the national background check system for gun purchases.
A 10-day waiting period for those background checks was put into place with the signing of the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
California law states you must be 18 years old to buy a rifle and 21 years of age to purchase a handgun.
“If we get a bad vibe from a customer, we won’t sell to them,” said Norris Sweiden with Warrior One gun store in Riverside.
Sweiden added that his store loses roughly 20 to 25 sales per month due to background checks being denied by the Department of Justice.
Among the witnesses at Tuesday’s Senate hearing was a woman who helped stop a gunman, identified by witnesses as Jared Loughner, during a shooting rampage in Tucson earlier this year that killed six people and seriously injured Dem. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
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