Fix Nics Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, my colleague from Connecticut is here in the room and mentioned the bill we have been working on together, the Fix NICS bill. I want to remind all of us what the motivation was, at least on my part, for introducing this legislation and express my gratitude to the Senator from Connecticut, as well as the Democratic leader Senator Schumer, and others who have cosponsored this legislation.

It was just a few short months ago when someone murdered 26 people worshipping in a small church just outside San Antonio in Sutherland Springs. He had purchased these firearms having lied on the background check when they asked him whether he was a convicted felon, whether he was honorably discharged from the military, and whether he had ever committed any domestic violence. He lied.

If he had told the truth, he would have been prohibited from buying those firearms and perhaps--maybe, perhaps--he would have been dissuaded, slowed down, or perhaps would not have committed that terrible atrocity that day when 26 people lost their lives, and 20 more were injured.

We have come to find out that the Air Force, which had convicted him of two of those offenses--domestic violence and the felony--failed to upload the information that was required in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. If they had, then he would not have gotten away with lying because the FBI background check system would have revealed the truth.

I can state that I have the utmost confidence that if the Fix NICS law were in effect at the time he was attempting to purchase those firearms, in all likelihood, he would have been prohibited from purchasing those guns, and I would conclude from that, lives would have been saved, and the lives which were changed forever because of the terrible injuries that the other 20 received would not have been changed in such a terrible way.

I told myself at the time that I cannot go to another church service--we went to the church that met in a tent just down the street from the place where the shooting took place a week after the shooting. The pastor and his wife who lost their teenage daughter were there. The wife was distraught, as you can imagine. The pastor summoned a power that is greater than human power to preach that day. It was emotional, it was inspirational, but it was a terrible tragedy. I told myself that day that I never wish to look another family in the face and say we failed to do everything that was in our power to prohibit or to stop something like that from happening again.

Fix NICS, as I think people who are familiar with it understand, basically takes the laws that currently exist and makes sure it is applied so people like this shooter in Sutherland Springs can't lie their way out of it and get access to firearms and ruin people's lives in the process.

I realize it may not be as comprehensive as some people would like. The problem is around here, if you ignore the things you can agree on and just look to fight about things you can't agree on, nothing ever happens--no problems ever get solved. I think a good place to start would be to pass this bipartisan Fix NICS piece of legislation.

I hope our colleagues would consider it. I understand they have a different view on some aspects of guns, but what we had here was a catastrophic failure. We had a systemic failure. The school system failed, the mental health authorities failed, the local law enforcement, the Federal law enforcement failed. Our society failed to provide the tools to identify people who cry out, in essence, on social media like this young man did when he posted on YouTube essentially the threat he actually carried out, which was going to go shoot up a school. When that was referred to the FBI, they didn't follow up on it and nothing ever happened.

Looking back on this particular young man, he was sending signals out on a regular basis that he was a ticking timebomb and people were going to get hurt and potentially die, as they did.

I hope that rather than leave here this week with nothing to show for our efforts, we would at least agree to pass what enjoys broad bipartisan support and to perhaps prevent another shooting like that which occurred at Sutherland Springs.

The President has made clear, thinking now about the Las Vegas shooting, that he believes bump stocks ought to be regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. I agree with that. So those are two things we could do, perhaps, that might save lives in the future, but to just say it is not enough, we ought to do more, and to fail to do what is within our grasp, which we can agree to, to me, seems like a bizarre way of doing business, and I think it is an abdication of our responsibility.

I don't want to see another family who has lost a loved one as a result of one of these mass shootings that might be prevented by some action we might take on Fix NICS or the bump stock issue, for example.

There may be other things we need to do. We have done some things, such as trying to address the mental health challenges that people like Adam Lanza's mother had. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, was obviously mentally ill, but he wouldn't accept the treatment his doctor prescribed.

What we did last December--during the Obama administration--passed something called the 21st Century Cures Act, which included a bill I sponsored called the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act, which encouraged the use of assisted outpatient treatment. For example, if Adam Lanza's mother couldn't handle her son--he wouldn't take his medication or comply with doctor's orders--she could go to a civil court and essentially get a court order requiring him to comply with his doctor's orders and to take his medication.

Again, I am not suggesting that any one of these in isolation is a panacea, but there are things we can do step-by-step, bit-by-bit, to reduce the likelihood that these terrible mass shootings occur in the future.

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