March 9 (UPI) — A bipartisan Senate bill to toughen background checks for gun purchases has enough support to bypass a potential filibuster, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Friday.
Cornyn’s office said six more Democratic senators have signed on as co-sponsors, bringing the total to 62 — over the threshold avert a filibuster.
The bill, called the Fix NICS Act, improves the National Instant Background Check System and ensures that authorities report all criminal records to a central database.
Support for the bill had stalled until the Feb. 14 shooting in a Parkland, Fla., high school that killed 17 people.
The bill aims to reduce the chances someone with a criminal past or documented warnings about behavioral issues can legally purchase a firearm.
Thursday, Cornyn suggested he was close to having 60 co-sponsors for the bill.
“People want to make this bill a Christmas tree, trying to decorate it with other legislative ornaments that look nice to their political base but stand no chance of passing this body or the House,” Cornyn told the Senate. “I think we have to call that what it is. It’s political posturing.
“It’s not about passing a bill which will actually improve the background check system to prevent people like the shooter at Sutherland Springs [in Texas], for example, from actually purchasing a firearm by lying on the background check. We should start with what’s achievable and what will actually save lives, and that describes the Fix NICS bill. … This bill could easily pass the Senate. It’s already passed the House, and the president would sign it.”
It is unclear when or if the bill will be brought to a vote in the full Senate.
Friday, Cornyn and 21 bipartisan senators also introduced a bill to fund school security improvements and initiate early intervention and prevention programs to stop school violence.
The Students, Teachers and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act reauthorizes prior legislation giving grants to states to help schools implement anti-violence programs. The bill would authorize $75 million in funding for this year and $100 million every year for the next decade.
It covers the training of school personnel and law enforcement to identify warning signs, implement reporting systems for threats of violence and develop school crisis teams.
