Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Pages S1921-S1922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Fix NICS Act
Mr. President, this last Saturday marked 1 year since the Fix NICS
Act was signed into law. This legislation meant a lot to me personally
because it
[[Page S1922]]
fulfilled a promise I made to the members of the Sutherland Springs
community after the deadliest shooting in Texas history.
On November 5, 2017, a deranged gunman opened fire in the First
Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, killing 26 people and rocking our
entire State to its core.
The gunman had a criminal record, a record of violence and mental
illness. He had been convicted of domestic violence while serving in
the military and by law should not have been able to purchase or
possess a firearm, but the National Instant Criminal Background Check
System, known as NICS, did not have a record of his crimes because they
had not been transmitted by the U.S. Air Force to the FBI. In the wake
of that tragedy, it is hard to rid your mind of the what-ifs. What if
his criminal record had been uploaded to the NICS database? What if he
had not been able to purchase a gun? For the friends and family of
those lost that day, those questions are almost too tough to ask
because they know the answer: Their loved ones might still be alive
today.
Sadly, there is nothing we can do to bring back the loved ones they
lost that day, but I knew there was something we could do to prevent
other families and communities from experiencing that sort of pain,
grief, and loss. Less than 2 weeks after the tragedy, Senator Murphy
from Connecticut and I introduced the Fix NICS Act to prevent these
systemic failures from happening again. This legislation penalizes
Federal Agencies that fail to properly report relevant crimes and
incentivizes States to improve their reporting.
These sorts of commonsense reforms gained broad bipartisan support.
In fact, there were 77 cosponsors here in the Senate alone, including
both the majority and minority leaders, something of a rarity in my
experience. It also gained the support of a diverse group of national
organizations, from the National Rifle Association to the National
Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Fraternal Order of Police, and
the National Shooting Sports Foundation. When President Trump signed
this bill 1 year ago, it marked the strongest update to the background
check system in a decade.
I appreciate the support of my colleagues for this legislation. What
we were able to demonstrate is that Congress can work in a bipartisan
way to address a problem if we just put our minds to it. I appreciate
the support of the Sutherland Springs community in the wake of the
tragedy, something they are still feeling even today. I am confident
that this legislation will help to save lives and make our communities
safer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.