WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Wednesday rolled out his proposal for curbing gun violence, aimed at cracking down on people selling guns illegally and expanding mental health programs — but notably leaving out measures such as red flag laws and tightening background checks for gun purchases.
“I spent time with families and victims in El Paso and Midland-Odessa following those tragedies and pledged to work with my Senate colleagues on real solutions,” Cornyn said in a statement. Cornyn’s proposal would create new federal, state and local task forces to investigate and prosecute people selling guns without a license or who provide false statements as part of a background check. It would expedite the death penalty for those found guilty of mass murder and domestic terrorism by limiting the scope of federal appeals. And it would tell internet service providers and online platforms that they can share information with law enforcement

It would expand mental health programs, push schools to police online activities of students who may be at risk of committing self-harm or violence against others and boost access to active shooter training funding for first responders, among other things.
Cornyn’s pitch, backed by five other Senate Republicans, comes as the gun control debate in D.C. that was sparked by mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa over the summer has been overshadowed by the unfolding Ukraine scandal at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

It’s also a sign of the appetite for new gun laws in the GOP-controlled Senate, where a bill to expand background checks for firearm purchases has languished since it passed the House of Representatives in February. While national polling has shown an appetite for tighter gun background checks — a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month showed 89 percent of national voters support the checks for all firearms purchases — Cornyn, one of the top Republicans in the Senate, has said he doesn’t see a need for expanding them.

Advocates criticized his bill for doing too little.
"Senator Cornyn’s bill fails to address the most important gun safety policies that will save Texan lives: background checks and red flag laws,” said Hilary Whitfield, volunteer leader with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “From the mayors of Odessa, Midland, El Paso and Fort Worth to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Republican officials have joined gun safety advocates across Texas to call for stronger background checks. If Sen. Cornyn refuses to listen, we’ll tell him loud and clear at the ballot box."
Efforts to tighten background checks also appear to have broad support in Texas. A Quinnipiac University poll last month found 89 percent of Texas voters support background checks for all gun buyers. Voters were less certain about whether or not stricter gun laws would help decrease the number of mass shootings, in that poll — with 45 percent saying stricter laws would help and 50 percent saying they would not.
Cornyn introduced the legislation a month after he blamed former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke for setting the gun debate in D.C. back “maybe by not just years, but decades” by calling for a mandatory buyback of assault-style weapons from the Democratic presidential debate stage — a sentiment later echoed by Trump as negotiations on new gun laws in the nation’s capital appeared to stall out.

“The frequent complaint you hear in Washington is that it doesn't go far enough,” Cornyn said. “People have come up with a lot of good ideas, but if you can’t get the votes to pass it in the House and the Senate and get a presidential signature, they don’t count for much.”
Cornyn’s bill, which he has named the RESPONSE Act, comes as he stares down what is widely expected to be his most difficult reelection fight as Democrats hope to turn Texas blue in 2020. His political opponents have ratcheted up their attacks on his record on guns, especially.
For subscribers: Cornyn says O’Rourke’s buy-back call set gun debate back for years
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Former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar, one of nearly a dozen Democrats vying to take on Cornyn in 2020, hit the senator for accepting a $1,000 campaign donation from the National Rifle Association’s political action committee on Aug. 19 — just two weeks after a gunman killed 22 at an El Paso Walmart. The NRA gave Cornyn’s campaign $4,950 in April, as well. Cornyn has accepted $210,190 from the gun lobby in all, sixth-most of anyone in the Senate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“When Texans look at D.C. and wonder why Senator Cornyn won't support expanded background checks, which doesn't make ANY sense to us, I tell them to always follow the money,” Hegar said in a statement. “While we have people being gunned down in our streets, stores, and churches, Senator Cornyn is cashing checks from the NRA and doing their bidding.”
Virtually all of the Democrats in the race have called for expanding background checks, and several — including former Houston Congressman Chris Bell — have called for assault weapons to be banned and the mandatory buybacks that O’Rourke supports.
Cornyn, however, has argued that background checks only do so much to stop shooters. He said his bill would “go a long way toward making sure the background check requirement is more comprehensive” than it is now.
“The Midland-Odessa shooter failed a background check when he attempted to buy a firearm from a licensed dealer, but was still able to purchase his weapon from someone who appears to have been manufacturing and selling guns who never registered as a firearms dealer,” Cornyn wrote in an op-ed published in the El Paso Times and Odessa American on Wednesday. “By not registering, he was able to skirt the background check requirement and sell a weapon to the shooter.”

Cornyn has successfully pushed gun safety legislation in the past. He sponsored the so-called “Fix NICS Act,” which tightened requirements for states and federal agencies to report criminal history data to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Cornyn says the legislation has led to a roughly 400-percent increase in record submissions from federal agencies.

Criminals don’t buy guns from stores.

The trial of Socrates comes to mind. Better to propose an acceptable alternative from your friends than be forced to accept a fatal suggestion from your enemies.