Sen. John Cornyn is responding to the Sutherland Springs church shooting with legislation he says will strengthen firearm background checks.
The Texas Republican wants to 'incentivize' gun background checks by state agenies and force the federal government to upload criminal records into the national data base.
“We've already got a number of Democratic senators interested in co-sponsoring it, so my hope this is something we could do pretty quickly in a matter of weeks,” Cornyn said by telephone.
“We can't essentially take over the states, we have to incentivize them to do so, but I think there are a lot of people of good will who would like to see our background system work.”
Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, points out the Las Vegas gunman passed all existing background checks before killing 58 people. His only run-in with police was a minor traffic violation years earlier.
“The thought that if we just have more and tighter gun controls from a federal or state level will somehow stop madmen from committing heinous acts is the definition of insanity,” he says.
Brown finds it suspicious a Texas Republican is working with Democrats on gun control legislation.
“Clearly there is some backroom deals going on and we think citizens ought to stiffen Sen. Cornyn's spine by demanding that he cancel any thought of hearings,” he says.