Cornyn: Fix NICS Is Consensus Way To Address Gun Violence

“It’s supported by the president, the majority and minority leaders are cosponsors, and it’s supported by gun groups like the N.R.A. and Everytown for Gun Safety, which are at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum…”

WASHINGTON –Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed his Fix NICS Act, which has 50 bipartisan cosponsors, as the best option to pass the Senate.  Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks and a video of his remarks can be found below.

I want to bring up one last topic that we’ve been discussing this last week, and that is ways we can prevent mass shootings from happening in the future.

I’ve introduced a bill that’s already passed the House that would address this problem, and I believe would save lives in the future.

We’ve added ten new cosponsors this week, bringing the total number to 50 cosponsors for this legislation.

Yesterday the President hosted an amazing meeting of 17 members of Congress on a bipartisan basis and brainstormed about other things we might be able to do. But right now — right now – Fix NICS is our best and only option to act in response.

It’s supported by the president, the majority and minority leaders are cosponsors, and it’s supported by gun groups like the N.R.A. and Everytown for Gun Safety, which are at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum when it comes to the Second Amendment. But as I said, this bill has 50 cosponsors here in the Senate and is ready for action, having already passed the House of Representatives.

I pledged then that I would never face another grieving family with empty hands, saying we could have done something that might have saved your child’s life or loved one’s life by fixing the broken background check system.

There are other things that we might do, but as we all know, the threshold for actually passing legislation is 60 votes.

I’m not going to go home and tell my constituents in Texas I didn’t do my very best and didn’t do something meaningful that would save lives in the future, and Fix NICS is the best way to do that and do that now.”