After his role in ramming through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Sen. John Cornyn should be figuring his days in Republican leadership are numbered. It’s not that the law was the massive win anti-gunners wanted–it’s bad, but it’s not quite to that extreme–it’s that he capitulated, giving the anti-gunners anything at all that they wanted without getting anything in return.
Oh, they didn’t get everything they wanted, but they’ll be back for that stuff. That’s not compromise, that’s surrender.
As a result, Cornyn should be tripping over himself shoring up support and doing damage control. Instead, though, he thinks he’s got a shot at Mitch McConnell’s old job.
Yes, I have a problem with that.
Gun Owners of America does, too.
Gun Owners Of America (GOA) shared their concerns Thursday with Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn after he announced his intention to run for Senate Republican Leader, just one day after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would be stepping down as leader in November.
In an exclusive phone call with the Daily Caller, Aidan Johnston, the Director of Federal Affairs for GOA, said Cornyn is not a Conservative pro-gun leader, mentioning pieces of legislation that Cornyn has supported in the past, which Johnston described as gun control.
“The United States Senate deserves a conservative pro-gun leader, and John Cornyn is not that person, it seems. I’ll say every time a gun issue comes up: He’s right there with a compromise. And that’s not leadership. That’s just capitulation to gun control. Americans deserve someone who will refuse to compromise with their God-given Second Amendment rights. And unfortunately, John Cornyn is, always, always, always cutting deals with our Second Amendment,” Johnston told the Caller.
“I mean, as far back as, 2007-2008 John Cornyn was not standing up to object to gun control when the Veterans Disarmament Act passed, otherwise known as the NICs Improvement Amendment Act. But then you’ve got the Fix NICs Act, the followed successor to that 2008 bill,” Johnston continued. “The Fix NICs Act, which passed in 2017-2018. And that bill was supposed to only pass coupled with concealed carry reciprocity, but it was squishy Republicans in Congress that let the two bills be separated, and they passed the gun control and not concealed carry.”
Honestly, it goes on for a bit and pretty much none of this shows any confidence in Cornyn actually standing for gun rights in the Senate.
That’s bad.
Look, the Senate is a close thing. Right now, control of the House is in Republican hands, which means Cornyn couldn’t completely screw us over even if he wants to. That can change in November, though, and the Senate’s turnover isn’t so rapid.
It’s entirely possible that we might be looking at an anti-gun House and Cornyn in charge of Senate Republicans. If that happens, there’s zero reason to believe Cornyn will make the necessary stand to protect our gun rights.
Say what you want about Mitch McConnell, but he did plenty of that over the years. Not enough, but a lot.
Cornyn hasn’t shown any indication that he would.
As Johnston notes, Cornyn has a history of just standing back and letting anti-gun bills pass. As just a member of the Senate, he could probably get away with that without too many headaches. As Senate leadership, that’s not going to fly.
And frankly, we just shouldn’t trust Cornyn.
It’s not just GOA opposing Cornyn, either. NAGR has voiced their opposition to him as well. I suspect other groups should be rolling out their opposition here in the next day or two because I can’t imagine any pro-gun group backing him.
Moms Demand Action and Everytown might, though.
