[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1260-S1261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             FIX NICS BILL

  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

[[Page S1261]]

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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