Sen. John Cornyn of Texas was a big part of why the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed under President Joe Biden. He rallied just enough GOP votes to get it through the Senate, which was the only possible bulwark against any gun control passing. In doing so, he angered a lot of pro-gun people.
Now, it seems some are shocked to learn that backing a gun control bill isn’t playing well with gun rights supporters in Texas.
In the wake of the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn made a risky decision for a Republican anywhere, but especially in Texas.
Moved by the deaths of 19 young school children, Cornyn helped shepherd the nation’s first major legislation on gun safety in decades that sought, among other goals, to enhance background checks for young gun buyers and crack down on illegal gun purchases.
The criticism was immediate.
In short order, the Texas GOP formally rebuked Cornyn, President Donald Trump called him a “RINO,” gun rights groups demanded he apologize for calling party delegates who booed him a “mob” — and the most consequential gun-related legislation the nation has passed in a generation became attached to Cornyn’s legacy.
Now critics are turning up the heat on Cornyn as he faces two primary challengers in what is shaping up to be the fight of his career. They accuse Cornyn of capitulating to Democrats’ gun control demands and turning his back on gun owners — even though the bill largely did not restrict gun owner’s existing rights and was supported by a host of law enforcement groups.
The bill made it easier to remove guns from people threatening to kill themselves or others, as well as people who have committed domestic violence; clarified who needed to register as a federal firearms dealer; and earmarked $11 billion for mental health services and another $2 billion for community-based antiviolence programs.
“This is an issue that divides much of the country, depending on where you live, and maybe divides people living in the same household,” the state’s senior senator said when the bill advanced out of the Senate. “But I think we have found some areas where there’s space for compromise and we’ve also found that there are some red lines and no middle ground.”
Regardless, Second Amendment loyalists, including his two challengers, say Cornyn betrayed them.
This is, of course, because Cornyn betrayed us.
See, what Cornyn did, if nothing else, just told the anti-gunners that yeah, people on the pro-gun side think that there’s a place for gun control. It fed into the delusion that somehow, we all secretly think gun control works. Cornyn, of all people, backing a gun control bill in the wake of Uvalde just confirmed their own delusions for them.
And while this article said it “largely did not restrict gun owner’s[sic] existing rights,” the truth is that any restriction, even a potential one in the case of red flag laws, is too much.
We’ve fought for years to win back the rights that were taken from us, the rights we were told we were selfish if we didn’t give up in the name of public safety, and what happened when we “compromised” with them? They immediately went back to trying to take more.
Cornyn was warned that this would be used against him. I know that I wrote plenty along those lines, and I was far from alone in doing so. He did what he wanted to do despite the warnings, and now he’s having to pay the price. I can’t feel the least bit bad about it.
As the wise man once said, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” For a politician representing the entire state of Texas, backing a gun control bill, no matter whether it went as far as anti-gunners wanted it to go, is the epitome of playing stupid games.
Now, he’s got a chance to win the stupid prize of being bounced out of office via a primary challenge.
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