Cornyn said the issue of gun control had been 'politicized so much.' Cornyn introduces NRA-supported background-check bill

The Senate’s second most powerful Republican is pitching his own plan to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining firearms — and he’s gotten the National Rifle Association to endorse the measure.

The new legislation from Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn tries to patch some holes in the current national background checks system by encouraging states, through the promise of federal funding, to send more information on mental-health records to the national database.


Cornyn’s bill would also create a path for people who may be mentally ill to be ordered into treatment by a judge without being involuntarily committed. That provision, the Texas senator said, would boost access to treatment options to strike at some of the root causes of gun-fueled violence, such as the recent shootings at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, by a man who authorities say had a history of mental illness.

Still, under Cornyn’s legislation, the person getting treatment wouldn’t be officially determined to be mentally ill and could, in theory, still purchase firearms. Under current law, a person would have to be adjudicated as mentally ill in order to be barred from purchasing a gun.

In a small roundtable with reporters on Wednesday, Cornyn said the issue of gun control had been “politicized so much” and that his legislation tries to strike a middle ground. Aside from the powerful NRA, which helped quash a background-checks bill two years ago, Cornyn’s legislation is also endorsed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the National Association on Police Organizations.

“We’ve known mental health was a key component to addressing this problem in so many instances,” Cornyn said. “And yet, rather than actually try to make progress in dealing with people who are mentally ill, we’ve had these broader debates about the Second Amendment and about infringing the rights of law-abiding, sane citizens.”

The measure doesn’t increase existing federal funding for the current background checks database or mental health programs. But it would redirect some of the existing cash to states that send more information to the national system, which is run by the FBI.

Overall, the bill authorizes about $195 million per year for the federal database — the National Instant Criminal Background Check System — and other related programs, Cornyn said.

“We know because the background check system depends on the voluntary participation and compliance of various states, that there’s a lot of variety in the ways that the states upload their background check information,” the Senate’s No. 2 Republican said. “So what this will do is to make sure that it’ll clarify the scope of the mental health records that the states must share and upload on the background check system.”

Meanwhile, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, New York’s Chuck Schumer, proposed legislation earlier this week that would deal with issues similar to those raised by Cornyn.

Flanked by actress and comedian Amy Schumer (a cousin), the senator outlined legislation that, like Cornyn’s bill, would push states to submit key mental health records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The July 23 shooting occurred at a screening of Amy Schumer’s latest movie, “Trainwreck.”