WASHINGTON — A measure to beef up enforcement of the nation’s background check system for potential gun buyers will be included in the government funding bill due for a congressional vote this week.
The provision, crafted by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, is designed to push federal agencies and states to upload criminal records into the National Criminal Instant Background Check System. That system is used to screen people seeking to purchase guns for criminal histories.
Missing felony records in that database allowed the shooter in November’s Sutherland Springs, Texas, massacre to pass a background check.
Cornyn’s bill penalizes state and government agencies that don’t upload relevant records to that system and rewards the ones that do. It also gives financial incentives to states and agencies that share information with the NICS about domestic abusers who are excluded from purchasing firearms under current law.
“We will save lives in the future by simply making sure the current law is enforced,” Cornyn said of his proposal.
For two weeks, Cornyn’s bill sat with more than 60 co-sponsors — the required number of votes to advance in the Senate. It did not receive a vote.
It will instead be tucked into government spending bill with support from both parties. Gun provisions were among the few issues leaders were still haggling over late Wednesday.
Cornyn’s bill has the support of 77 senators from both parties, the pro-gun safety group Everytown for Gun Safety and President Donald Trump.
The National Rifle Association cheered it as a way to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, while also allowing quicker recourse for law-abiding citizens who receive a false-positive from the background check system.
Still, the gun rights and gun safety camps each want more.
Congressional conservatives wanted Cornyn’s bill attached to a much bigger gun rights priority, one that would allow concealed-carry permit holders to take their guns across state lines. That provision was attached to the plan when the bill passed the House, but it was not included in Wednesday’s government funding bill.
Gun safety advocates, who also backed Cornyn’s bill, say Congress has a lot further to go in curbing gun violence. They secured a provision to allow the Center for Disease Control to research gun safety as part of the government spending bill.
“The Fix NICS Act is a no-brainer,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “If it’s all that Congress does, it would be an inexcusable failure of leadership.”
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