[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 151 (Thursday, September 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Background Checks

  Mr. President, finally on guns, yesterday, according to reports, 
Attorney General Barr came to Capitol Hill to discuss a one-page 
proposal on gun legislation that he had put together. It became clear 
soon after that the White House, seemingly out of fear of reprisal by 
the NRA, was unwilling to embrace its own Attorney General's proposal. 
Once again, the White House refused to take a stand on what they 
propose to do on the question of gun violence.
  President Trump and Senate Republicans are trying to find a way to 
have their cake and eat it too--searching for a plan that the public 
will accept and won't offend the NRA. It is a fool's errand.
  Leader McConnell, President Trump, you can't please the NRA and at 
the same time do good gun legislation that will save lives. You cannot 
please the NRA unless you do something that is either regressive or, at 
the very best, toothless. Get it through your heads. That is how it is.
  If you want to do something real on gun legislation and save lives, 
you have to reject the NRA's ministrations. The NRA is wildly out of 
step with the views of the American public. Its policies are 
reactionary; its leadership, recalcitrant and divided.
  Look no further than the universal background check bill. Ninety-
three percent of Americans, the great majority of gun owners, and 80 
percent of Republicans support the idea. But not the NRA. As for 
yesterday's plan floated by the Republican Attorney General, a plan 
that would only modestly expand background checks, representatives of 
the NRA called it a nonstarter.
  The views of the NRA and the views of the American public are 
fundamentally incompatible. President Trump, Leader McConnell, Senate 
Republicans, which side are you on? Are you with the NRA or are you 
with the American people?
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.