Law seeking to weed out felons and the mentally ill divided pro-control groups and won the NRA's backing. The federal measure grew out of Virginia Tech shootings.

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- It is a rare piece of gun legislation that finds the National Rifle Assn. and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence on the same side, but President Bush signed such a bill Tuesday.

The measure, Congress' response to last year's Virginia Tech shootings, is the first significant federal attempt to tighten gun laws. It seeks to expand the federal database used to screen gun buyers to include the estimated 2 million-plus people, including felons and the mentally ill, who are ineligible to buy firearms.

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