NBC News: John Cornyn, Chris Murphy ‘Near Bipartisan Deal on Gun Control’

On Wednesday, NBC News reported that Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) were nearing a “bipartisan deal on gun control.”

Cornyn and Murphy are working together on gun legislation related to background checks in the wake of the Texas church attack.

The Texas gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, passed a background check for his firearms, although he had a criminal record that should have prohibited him from doing so. Kelley acquired a criminal record sufficient to forfeit Second Amendment rights while in the Air Force, but that record was not in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) because the Air Force “didn’t report” it, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis directed the Pentagon inspector general to review the failure to report Kelley’s criminal background to NICS.

While the Pentagon inspector general is investigating the failure to report Kelley’s record, NBC News reports that Cornyn and Murphy are putting forth a bill which asks “federal agencies and states to produce plans to upload and verify the criminal and mental health records necessary to bar unfit purchasers from buying a weapon.” The bill also “[creates] incentives like grants for states that comply with the uploading requirements, and accountability measures like withholding political appointees bonuses for agencies that fail to do so.”

NBC News reports that Sen. Murphy “has advocated for gun control legislation since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2013.” No gun legislation he has pushed has succeeded or even come as close to succeeding as the legislation he and Cornyn are pushing now.

Before the Texas church attack, Cornyn came out in support of hearings for bump stocks. On October 4 — just three days after the Las Vegas attack — Cornyn told Politico it would be “worthwhile” to hold hearings. He added, “It is ordinarily illegal to transform a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon, and it’s illegal to buy an automatic weapon unless you have a special license and undergo a special background check. I’m not sure how these bump stocks fit into that scheme, but that’s certainly something that’s got my attention and I think we ought to get to the bottom of it.”

Hearings about gun control play into the hands of Democrats who want gun control. And working with gun control Senators like Chris Murphy play into the hands of gun control Senators like Chris Murphy.

Proof of this was evident in a November 15 tweet wherein Murphy boasted of nearing a “bipartisan breakthrough on gun legislation.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.