Town’s GOP rep will support new gun bill
WASHINGTON — The Texas congressman whose district includes Uvalde says he plans to vote for a bipartisan gun bill the Senate is poised to pass this week — even as Republican opposition to the bill appears to be growing.
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a San Antonio Republican, tweeted Wednesday that he supports the gun bill drafted by a bipartisan group of senators, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, after recent mass shootings, including a gunman’s attack on an elementary school in Uvalde that resulted in the deaths of 19 kids and two teachers.
The legislation would be the first significant tightening of federal gun laws since 1994, bolstering background checks for gun buyers under 21 and restricting access to firearms for dating partners convicted of domestic abuse. It also provides funding for mental health programs, school security and for states to create red flag laws.
“As a congressman it’s my duty to pass laws that never infringe on the Constitution while protecting the lives of the innocent,” Gonzales tweeted on Wednesday. “In the coming days I look forward to voting YES on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”
The Senate is expected to pass the legislation later this week and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House will take it up soon after.
Gonzales explained his support by sharing that he is a survivor of domestic abuse.
“My stepfather would come home drunk & beat on me and my mother,” Gonzales tweeted. “One night he decided that wasn’t enough and shoved a shotgun in my mother’s mouth. I was 5 at the time and not strong enough to fend off the wolves.
“School was my sanctuary from the chaos at
home,” he said. “Now I am 41, all grown up. Loving father of six children. Served our country in the Navy for 20 years, led men and women in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. I slay wolves every day.”
But the bill drew growing criticism from Republicans on Wednesday. Former President Donald Trump slammed it as “the first step in the movement to take your guns away” and labeled Cornyn a “RINO,” meaning “Republican
in name only,” in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
While in office, Trump notably supported measures allowing law enforcement to confiscate guns from those deemed a danger to themselves or others, saying in 2018: “Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
House GOP leadership, meanwhile, told Republicans in a closed-door meeting that they oppose the measure and are expected to push lawmakers to vote against it, NBC News reported. The National Rifle Association has come out in opposition to the legislation, arguing it “leaves too much discretion in the hands of government officials” and contains “undefined and overbroad provisions.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz voted against it and Cornyn was booed at the Texas GOP convention last week, where delegates pushed a resolution rebuking him for working with Democrats on the bill.
Conservatives have been especially wary of provisions aimed at closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by extending federal laws that prohibit convicted domestic abusers from buying guns to include current and recent dating partners. Under the bill, they would be able to purchase firearms five years after a domestic violence conviction, provided they are not convicted of any additional violent offenses during that time.
Some Republicans have also opposed provisions that would offer funding for states to create crisis intervention programs, including red flag laws that allow police to take guns from those deemed a danger to themselves or others. The bill does not create any such laws, just provides funding to enact them.
Cornyn on Wednesday talked up conservative wins in the bill during a Senate GOP lunch, including funding for law enforcement and no new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.
He also highlighted provisions included at the request of the National Rifle Association. Those included that the enhanced background checks for juvenile gun buyers are repealed after 10 years, that bans on domestic abusers buying firearms only applies to recent relationships, and that first-time offenders can purchase guns again after five years.