Why Wait a Week to Kill?

"Guns don't kill; people do." The simple logic of that refrain from the National Rifle Association would suggest that the nation's 2.8 million-member gun lobby would support any move to keep the wrong people from acquiring deadly weapons. Not so. The N.R.A. invariably goes to war against any attempt to limit the avalanche of handguns that are used to kill 21,000 Americans annually. Last week the gun lobby triumphed in its latest campaign, a $4 million effort against a sensible congressional proposal to strengthen existing federal restrictions on the sale of handguns. The legislation would have required gun dealers to wait...