American Notes WASHINGTON

After an assassin's bullet struck former White House Press Secretary James Brady in the 1981 attack on President Reagan and left him partly paralyzed, his wife Sarah became a leading advocate of gun control. Until last week, Brady had never used his plight to dramatize the issue. Finally, fed up with Congress's failure to act on even modest gun-control measures, Brady came before a Senate committee in his wheelchair to deliver a blunt plea. Congress, he said, was "gutless" for failing to pass the Brady amendment, which would require a seven-day waiting period so that police could determine if a handgun purchaser was a felon or mental defective prohibited from buying firearms. Lawmakers who oppose the bill, Brady suggested, should "try being in my wheels for just one day."