No. 2 Senate Republican proposing gun background check bill

Well, maybe not. The AP reported yesterday that Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) has a bill intended to “make the federal background check system for gun buyers more effective and bolster programs for treating people with mental illness”.

A bill introduced two years ago intended to close the loophole but was fought by Republicans and the NRA, according to the Associated Press.

Still, it represents a rare effort by a leading Republican to propose modest steps that could curb some firearms purchases.

New NRA endorsed bill aims at preventing some mentally ill patients from buying guns.

Under the proposal, states that share their records on people with serious mental health problems would be rewarded with more grant money for law enforcement.

“I don’t think that they should be purged immediately after five years”, said Jerry Henry of Georgia Carry.

“Just because somebody has previously been declared, you know, sane or whatever, or has never been delclared insane, doesn’t mean they aren’t, you know, people snap, things happen”, said Jason Brown.

“We thank Sen. Cornyn for his leadership in standing up to the Obama administration and introducing legislation that will take meaningful steps toward fixing America’s broken mental health system”, said NRA lobbyist Chris Cox.

Currently, background checks are required only for sales by federally licensed gun dealers. He introduced the bill after it was discovered that Dylann Roof, who’s charged with killing nine people in a Charleston church, bought the gun while a background check was still being done.

Arkadi Gerney, a gun policy expert for the liberal Center for American Progress, said prodding states to submit additional data to the background check system is “a good and smart notion”, but it would be better to push broader legislation “that covers all the gaps”. At the same time, the bill would reduce grants “by the same amounts” for states providing less data. But states are not required to send those records to the FBI-run federal database, leaving it uneven. Houser’s household stated they knew he had psychological issues and had sought courtroom safety, however he was not involuntarily dedicated to a hospital.

Less than two weeks ago, John Russell Houser fired a handgun into a crowd of moviegoers in Lafayette, Louisiana, killing two and wounding nine. Police said Houser killed himself after they confronted him.

When he bought the weapon at a gun store in Alabama, the details about his issues had not been despatched to the background examine system and the sale was allowed. That ought to have blocked his buy. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., launched laws that would offer additional federal cash to states that ship a broad vary of knowledge on the mentally sick to the federal system, together with details about the mentally ailing, violent criminals and home abusers.

Gun-control advocates said the measure should have expanded background checks to online and gun show sales. All however 4 of the chamber’s 45 Republicans opposed the measure.