Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, 2 months ago, Texans were mourning the loss of 22 of our people killed in a senseless attack in El Paso, TX. Little did we know that we were just days away from another violent attack, this time in Midland and Odessa, which took seven lives.

Visiting these communities in the wake of these tragedies is tough-- something I have, unfortunately, had experience with following the 2017 shooting in Sutherland Springs and, again, in 2018 in Santa Fe High School. There are no words to bring comfort to the families and the friends and the community members who were shaken to their very core by these sudden and unwarranted acts of violence.

But as I visited with the families and offered my condolences following each of these attacks, there was one common refrain, one common request: Please do something. Now, if I knew of a way to introduce and pass legislation that could stop these types of criminal acts from occurring, I guarantee we could pass it with 100 percent of the Senate and 435 Members of the House, and the President would sign it. But that, unfortunately, is not the human condition. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix, no simple answer. Instead, we are left to look at the factors that led to these attacks and to try to do something to prevent the sequence of events from playing out again in the future.

Following the shooting in Sutherland Springs, we quickly learned some disturbing facts about the shooter and how he obtained his weapons. He had a history of violence and a criminal conviction that should have prevented him from ever purchasing a firearm. But this information was never uploaded into the background check system run by the FBI. As a result, the shooter was able to purchase four firearms, three of which were used in the attack. He shouldn't have been able to do that.

Every time something like this happens, it is only natural to say: What if? What if those convictions had been uploaded? What if he wasn't able to purchase those firearms? Could we have stopped this terrible loss of life?

My goal then, as it is now, is to do everything I can to make sure those questions don't have to be asked again.

Ten days after the Sutherland Springs shooting, I introduced a piece of legislation called Fix NICS--Fix the National Instant Criminal Background Check System--to fill the gaps in our background check system and ensure that government agencies submit relevant evidence. We worked hard on it over a long period of time, and it passed with more than 70 Senate bipartisan cosponsors.

What is the result of the Fix NICS bill we passed in the wake of Sutherland Springs? We now know that the Federal Government has increased its record submissions to the background check system by 400 percent--a 400-percent increase in the background check system. That means if somebody is dishonorably discharged from the military, if somebody has been convicted of domestic violence, violated a protective order, or convicted of any felony, the background check system is much more likely to have that derogatory information in it, and the seller will not sell that firearm. Because of this legislation, our Federal background databases are becoming stronger and better by the day and preventing more criminals from getting their hands on deadly weapons that are already prohibited by existing law.

But it is time once again to revisit the way we might reduce the loss of life, the way we might be able to reduce these mass violence episodes from occurring in our country in the future. Today, I am introducing the Restoring, Enhancing, Strengthening, and Promoting Our Nation's Safety Efforts--or the RESPONSE Act, as we call it. Just as Fix NICS did, this bill addresses specific problems to try to prevent attacks and make our communities safer.

First, this legislation takes aim at unlicensed firearms dealers who are breaking the existing law. Shortly after the Midland-Odessa shooting, we learned that the shooter failed a background check when he attempted to buy a gun from a licensed dealer. He then managed to circumvent the process by purchasing his weapon from somebody who appears to have been in the business of manufacturing and selling guns but who is not a registered firearms dealer. By not registering as a dealer, the seller was able to skirt the legal requirement and sell a weapon to the shooter without conducting the necessary background check.

So to prevent unlicensed dealers from continuing to break the law, the RESPONSE Act creates a nationwide task force to investigate and prosecute those individuals. The task force will focus on those who are illegally selling firearms, as well as those attempting to buy firearms who provide false statements as part of the background check.

While preventing unlicensed dealers from selling weapons without appropriate background checks is an important way to reduce violence, it is only one factor. I think we have to admit there isn't one single solution. It is multifactorial. There are multiple things we can and should do.

The second major piece of this legislation improves the quality and availability of mental health care. I asked the Odessa police chief following the shooting in Midland-Odessa: What is it you think we might have been able to do? He said: Well, we need better access to mental health diagnoses and treatment.

We clearly need to do more to identify and support struggling individuals who could pose a danger to themselves and to others. We know for a fact that the majority of gun deaths are suicides, self- inflicted. While mental illness is not the prevailing cause of mass violence, enhanced mental health resources, I believe, are critical to saving lives. The RESPONSE Act includes a range of measures, such as expanding mental health crisis intervention teams, improving coordination between mental health providers and law enforcement, and bolstering the mental health workforce.

Importantly, this bill expands something called assisted outpatient treatment programs, or AOTs. This is something we passed as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, my Mental Health and Safe Communities Act to help focus on, as a priority, pilot projects of these assisted outpatient treatment programs. Here we seek to expand them further based on the proven success. AOTs, or assisted outpatient treatment, provide families of individuals with mental illness an opportunity to get treatment for their loved one in their community rather than in an institution. Making mental health resources more accessible will serve our most vulnerable friends and neighbors in countless ways and, I believe, make our communities safer.

Third, the RESPONSE Act seeks to increase the safety of our students. I have heard from countless parents--no doubt, the Presiding Officer has too--that parents literally are in fear of sending their children to school, not knowing whether they may be victimized by one of these senseless attacks, especially in the aftermath of Santa Fe and Parkland High School. Parents are rightfully concerned about sending their kids to school, and they should not have to live with that.

The RESPONSE Act includes provisions to help identify students whose behavior indicates a threat of violence and then provide the student with the appropriate services they may need not to be a danger to themselves or others. By promoting best practices within our schools, as well as internet safety policies, we can help protect both students and school faculty and provide parents with a little peace of mind.

Finally, because so often these shooters advertise on social media or cry out for attention to law enforcement or other people ahead of time, this legislation includes provisions to ensure law enforcement can receive timely information about potential threats made online. Online providers and platforms have the ability to share information with law enforcement today during emergencies. And in the fight against child abuse, the RESPONSE Act would expand the scope of information they can share to include information about potential acts of mass violence or self-harm or hate crimes or acts of domestic terrorism.

The RESPONSE Act has been endorsed already by a number of law enforcement and mental health organizations, including the National Council for Behavioral Health, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National District Attorneys Association, Fraternal Order of Police, and a number of others.

I am glad to say it also has received support already--even though we are only introducing it today--from a number of our colleagues here: Senators McSally, Tillis, Ernst, Capito, and Senator Tim Scott. I hope we can work together to build a big bipartisan list of cosponsors as other Senators have the opportunity to review this legislation--again, using the Fix NICS bill as a model of how we can build consensus and get something done that will save lives.

There is no quick fix, as I said, but there are commonsense measures we can take to reduce mass violence and protect the American people. As Texans continue to grieve in the aftermath of these attacks, I am committed to upholding my promise that I made to their families and friends to do something--to do what we can to prevent more communities from facing this sort of heartbreak.

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