Cornyn turns gun-shy over loophole closure
We miss Big Bad John. That would be John Cornyn, our own senior senator, who showed up in a memorable 2008 campaign ad sporting a white cowboy hat and a western-style buckskin jacket featuring fringe down the sleeves and rhinestone cowboy-style applique across the shoulders. “He rose to the top in just one term, kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm,” drawled a Sam Elliott-style narrator. “Big John. Big John. Yeah, Big Bad John.”
The cheesy ad worked or at least did no harm. Cornyn was easily elected to a second term. (He’ll run for a fifth in 2026.)
These days, it’s Big Bad John himself who may be squirming a bit. Sixteen years ago, he was said to “shoot straight and talk straight and enjoy a good brew,” but today we picture him booted and behatted, fringe all aflutter, tiptoeing through a field of tulips that just might conceal a political minefield.
A little background: Nearly two years ago, in the aftermath of one of the worst mass shootings in American history — 19 children and two teachers slaughtered at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary — Cornyn really was big, if not bad. He took the lead in a successful bipartisan effort to pass the most significant gun-safety legislation in three decades.
If not for Cornyn, President Joe Biden would never have been able to sign into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The bill increased funding for mental health and set up incentives for states to implement red flag laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who pose threats to themselves or others. The act also closed the so-called “boyfriend loophole” and increased funding for school security.
Cornyn, working with U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican; Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat at the time (now an independent); and Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, managed to corral fellow Republicans in support, 15 in all and five more than needed to avoid a bill-killing filibuster. (His Texas cohort, Ted Cruz, was not one of them.)
Cornyn told the Texas Tribune that he knew of several Republican colleagues who supported the legislation in private but dared not vote for it. “I know that there are a number of people who are glad we passed this legislation,” he said, “but who did not want to vote for the bill for their own political reasons.”
Big John Cornyn took a stand on principle and on behalf of his fellow Texans. For his efforts, he endured thunderous jeers from fellow Republicans at the state party convention that summer and plaintive shouts of “Don’t take our guns away!”
To add insult to that “unpleasant experience,” as Cornyn put it, former President Donald Trump labeled him a RINO (Republican in Name Only).
All that likely explains why Big Bad John seems gun-shy these days. At the national level, after all, Cornyn is vying to succeed U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as either the majority or minority Senate leader. Closer to home, though, his political future is complicated by not-sosubtle hints that he might face a GOP primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a MAGA hero whom Cornyn disdains. If Paxton boots Cornyn back to the corral in 2026, the senator’s long and distinguished political career is likely over.
Shuffling to his right last week in a traditional Texas two-step, the suddenly skittish senator found a way to curtsy to Texas Republicans.
To underscore his gun-rights bona fides, Cornyn is opposing a recently announced rule based on the U.S. Department of Justice’s interpretation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the very act the senator worked so hard to pass. The rule is designed to close a loophole for people who have other sources of income besides selling guns. Individuals who sell via mail order, flea markets or gun shows now will have to conduct a background check. The new rule does not apply to a father giving a family gun to his child or “a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”
Cornyn labeled the Biden administration’s claim that the interpretation is based on his legislation “an outright lie.” He and co-sponsor Tillis plan to introduce a joint resolution of disapproval that will call for the rule to be overturned.
Paxton announced that he too will fight the rule. In league with attorneys general in Mississippi, Utah and Louisiana, he has filed a lawsuit challenging its legality. The AGs want a stay while litigation continues.
“Under this regulation,” Attorney General Merrick Garland noted last month, “it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store. If you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks. This regulation is a historic step in the Justice Department’s fight against gun violence. It will save lives.”
We agree. So do most Americans who, watching their fellow citizens mowed down by firearms in one atrocity after another, have for years begged their lawmakers for common-sense gun-safety legislation. Both the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the Justice Department rule represent small steps in the right direction.
A real-life Big Bad John needs to own the laudable effort he made on behalf of gun safety two years ago. Instead of truckling to the Second Amendment absolutists in his party, he needs to stand up. If it helps him stand tall, it’s OK with us if he brings back the buckskin jacket, fringe and all.
Firearm-safety law’s author has shuffled rightward in a Texas two-step