I admit that I’ve been a bit reluctant to write about Sen. John Cornyn ever since I posited that he was setting himself up for a primary opponent with his vote helping the President regarding the “fiscal cliff” at the beginning of the year. I lost several “friends” because they thought that I was criticizing the senator, ignoring what I actually wrote, which wasn’t criticism, just noting the lay of the land. So I’ve pretty much ignored his seeming lurch to the right after that criticism and the jokes about him being nothing more than a proxy vote for Sen. Ted Cruz.

But when I received this press release from his office today, I immediately cringed and decided to write about it because it is such a supreme example of an out of touch establishment politician:

JOHN CORNYN United States Senator – Texas For Immediate Release	CONTACT: Megan Mitchell, (202) 224-0704 Drew Brandewie, (202) 224-0703 Thursday,  March 7, 2013

Cornyn Offers Amendment to Exempt Soldiers and Veterans from Assault Weapons Ban

 ‘We should think long and hard before disarming these heroes, preventing them from protecting their families and communities’

WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) offered an amendment to exempt all U.S. military personnel and veterans from a proposed ban on Assault Weapons during a markup of new gun control legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Cornyn’s amendment, which did not pass, received bipartisan support.

“Members and veterans of the Armed Forces are the most highly-trained and qualified individuals to own these weapons for self-defense purposes. We should think long and hard before disarming these heroes, preventing them from protecting their families and communities.”

You can watch the video here.

Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees.  He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.

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Are you kidding me? Offering up an amendment to a very bad bill is so old school establishment politics that I was beside myself. Yeah, I get it, using “veterans” is a good political tactic but dadgummitt, veterans aren’t the only people that have the right to defend their homes and property! We should “think long and hard” before disarming ANY American! I admit that I was incensed that a senator from Texas would do this.

And then I watched the entire video.

Dang it, Sen. Cornyn makes a strong case for EVERYONE to defend themselves in this video and is obviously against this bill! But I’d never have known it if I hadn’t bothered to watch the entire 2 minute and 34 second video instead of the 36 seconds that the press release links to. Try it yourself: click here for the press release starting point and here for the entire video.

Good grief! Who in the heck is working for Sen. Cornyn? And why make him look bad?

Let’s be clear – I’m still not happy that Sen. Cornyn offered an amendment to this bad bill instead of trying his best to block the thing. Old school politics are yesterdays news – it is time for principled leadership. Voters in Texas do not want politicians to put lipstick on a pig – we want the pig to be put down. And  make no mistake, an amendment letting soldiers and veterans defend themselves while ignoring ordinary voters is putting lipstick on a pig.

But the bigger question is this: what is going on with Sen. Cornyn’s campaign/office? I don’t get it. Why on earth would they highlight a flawed amendment instead of his defense of the Second Amendment?

UPDATE March 8, 2013 @ 10:00 am – originally published Mar 7, 2013 @ 17:13

After publishing this, I received a couple of calls from Sen. Cornyn’s staff attempting to clarify what he was doing. Apparently, he was trying to highlight the absurdity of the law with more absurdity, which does appear to be the case in the portion of the video that the press release ignored, as I noted above. Sen. Cornyn’s communication director, Megan Mitchell, referred me to a separate press release, which I received about an hour before the one copied above:

JOHN CORNYN United States Senator – Texas For Immediate Release	CONTACT: Megan Mitchell, (202) 224-0704 Drew Brandewie, (202) 224-0703 Thursday,  March 7, 2013

Cornyn: Assault Weapons Ban ‘Symbolism Over Substance’

WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke out on the need to protect the 2^nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Texas gun owners during consideration of new gun control legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee:

On the need to focus on prosecution of existing gun crimes (VIDEO)

“My concern is that this bill is a solution in search of a problem. Straw purchasing for purpose of directing guns to people who cannot legally obtain them is already a crime. And so we double down and say ‘this time we really mean it,’ when in fact the real problem, I think, in many instance is the lack of prosecution of existing crimes by the Department of Justice.

“And as I’ve said earlier and I’ll say again, I have a hard time explaining to my constituents back home how passing more laws that will go unenforced makes them any safer.”

On opposition to the Assault Weapons Ban (VIDEO)

“Congress and President Clinton tried a so-called Assault Weapons Ban 19 years ago and we have the benefit of hindsight as well as some research to examine the lackluster results of that decade-long experiment. According to the Department of Justice’s own study it was completely ineffectual in reducing murder or violent crime rates.

“So, are we really going to pass another law that will have zero effect, and pat ourselves on the back and say ‘we’ve  accomplished something wonderful?’  Well we tried this experiment once and it failed, and I think it promotes symbolism over seriousness to repeat that mistake.”

On the need to focus on mental health (VIDEO)

“A real concern of mine is that the efforts to enact this gun ban are distracting Congress from working on areas that I believe there is a broad consensus in keeping deranged madmen from buying guns…If there was a common thread in the Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora and Newtown massacres, it was the mental illness of the shooter…The commonality is not the type of guns used…the common thread was mental illness. No one wants disturbed young men or women for that matter to have access to firearms. 

“Unfortunately this legislation focuses not on the perilous intersection of mental illness and guns, but on cosmetic features of certain firearms. We should refocus our effort to make sure the current background check system works to screen out the dangerously mentally-ill…But sadly we seem to be focused on window-dressing and risk putting symbolism over substance.”

Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees.  He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.

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Ms. Mitchell also said that Sen. Cornyn would continue his efforts on Tuesday by offering more amendments:

OLL13117: Violence Against Women Act Victims

• This amendment would allow victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking under the Violence Against Women Act to obtain and possess the self-defense weapons prohibited by this legislation.
• As we all know, these victims are often the target of repeat offenders and a devastating cycle of violence.
• Several weeks ago, Gayle Trotter of the Independent Women’s Forum explained to this committee that guns are a great equalizer for women trying to protect themselves from aggressors.
• In particular, she noted that AR-15s, which are prohibited by this legislation, are the “weapon of choice” for many women due to their accuracy, easy handling, and light weight.
• I agree with Ms. Trotter.
• And I am concerned that this legislation will have a disparate and negative impact on female crime victims.
• We cannot vote to leave these victims behind.

 

OLL13116: Protection Orders

• This amendment would allow persons who have obtained a protection order, as defined in the Violence Against Women Act, to obtain and possess the personal self-defense weapons prohibited by this legislation.
• The National Coalition of Domestic Violence estimates that 1.3 million women are traumatized by domestic violence each year, and that one in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
• When sexual assault statistics are added to this estimate, the numbers are staggering.
• To the most vulnerable of these women, the protective order is a living symbol of their struggle—and a certification of the real threat of danger they and their families must live with every day.
• And we should ensure that, at the very least, these law-abiding Americans are not left behind.

 

OLL 13118: Southern Border County Residents

• This amendment would allow residents of counties on the Southern Border to obtain and possess the self-defense weapons prohibited by this legislation.
• Just across our Southern Border, transnational criminal cartels equipped with fully-automatic military weapons and trained in military tactics are committing hundreds of thousands of terrorist acts and crimes of violence every year.
• But this organizations have also expanded their footprint to the United States through drug trafficking and human trafficking.
• I cannot tell my constituents on the Southern Border that the federal government is going to take away their freedom to defend their families from transnational drug cartels.

 

OLL 13119: Southern Border Residents

• This amendment would allow residents of land within one mile of the Southern Border to obtain and possess the self-defense weapons prohibited by this legislation.
• Just across our Southern Border, transnational criminal cartels equipped with fully-automatic military weapons and trained in military tactics are committing hundreds of thousands of terrorist acts and crimes of violence every year.
• But this organizations have also expanded their footprint to the United States through drug trafficking and human trafficking.
• I cannot tell my constituents on the Southern Border that the federal government is going to take away their freedom to defend their families from transnational drug cartels.
• I will also note that, last Congress, Senator Feinstein introduced legislation known as the Border Tunnel prevention Act
• This legislation would have allowed the Secretary of Homeland Secure to declare any land within one mile of the Southern Border to be declared a “national security zone.”
• My amendment would simply allow residents of this land the ability to choose how they want to defend their families.

 

HEN13246: Second Amendment Defense

• This amendment would create an affirmative defense for persons charged with violations of this legislation where the weapon they possessed was “in common use for lawful purposes.”
• In the Heller case, the Supreme Court noted that weapons in common-use for lawful purposes are protected by the Second Amendment.
• And I am afraid that this legislation may violate the Constitution for that reason.
• This amendment will provide a backstop for law-abiding Americans to ensure that the protections of the Second Amendment still apply.

 

HEN13249:  ATF Southwest Border Rule

• I have an amendment to reign in what I view as a regulatory overreach by the ATF.
• In July 2011, ATF sent a letter to more than 8,700 firearms dealers in the four Southwestern border states … requesting the identity of any buyer purchasing more than one semi-automatic rifle in a 5-day period.
• Current law authorizes ATF to collect data on so-called multiple sales, but there is a limit to this authority.
• The relevant statute only applies to “…pistols or revolvers, or any combination of pistols and revolvers.”  [18 USC 923(g)(3)(a)]
• Despite Congress’ clear intent limiting this authority to handguns, ATF chose in July 2011 to demand similar information from dealers regarding rifles.
• There are several problems with this action:
  • ATF does not have this authority…
  • The requirement is an additional regulatory burden on business owners, many of whom are small businesses…
  • Demanding that 8,700 gun dealers open up their records … and share data pertaining to law abiding gun buyers … treads dangerously close to the creation of a gun registry—which is strictly forbidden by law.
• And in public statements announcing the measure, the Acting ATF Director referred to it as a “pilot project for a period of one year.”
• However, over 20 months later, ATF is still collecting this information.
• The Cornyn amendment clarifies that the law limits ATF’s authority to collect these records on handguns only.

As I said above, clearly Sen. Cornyn is against this bill on the whole. And I wish him luck in his attempts to illustrate the absurdity of it. But the fact remains that the press release was poor at best and that any attempt to “improve” this bill by loading it up with exemptions for special groups is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. And to answer Leo Vasquez’s comment, no, it is not logical to attempt to make a bad bill marginally better – it is logical to defeat that bad bill in any way possible. The House is not going to pass anything close to this bill, so any attempt to “make it better” in the Senate is a waste of time and effort. Just defeat it. Cute little games aren’t going to cut it and aren’t going to make a difference to the Democrats that are insisting on passing it anyway.

Another Cornyn spokesperson, Jessica Sandlin, pointed me to a post that appeared in a Washington Times Communities blog this morning: Feinstein exempts police, not “PTSD” vets from gun ban, highlighting this part:

Coryn (sic) questioned this unnecessary, peculiar new division of property rights and self-defense. An entire new market would emerge from such a ban. If American history of the 21st century proves correct, violence would skyrocket. This congressinal (sic) edict creates a foreign set of powerful rules for equal Americans.

“Is it because we [the Senate] believe they [only retired police] have some special competency and training to use these weapons to defend themselves and others, or do we think their families are worthy of special protection?”

The Senator clarified his belief that Americans must determine how best to defend their homes and communities. “If you don’t believe these weapons can be used lawfully for self-defense, then you should be offering an amendment to strike the pass for law enforcement. But of course, I don’t expect that,” Cornyn said to Feinstein and the co-sponsors.

But the single best defense of Sen. Cornyn arrived in an email from Erich Pratt, Director of Communications, Gun Owners of America, which I am posting below with permission:

Dave,

I read your blog post yesterday and just wanted to let you know that John Cornyn has been an absolute hero on the gun control bills pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee (see our alert below). He has led the battle in opposition to S. 54, the Veterans Gun Ban, at a time when even NRA was not sure that we had the capacity to defeat all gun control.

As a result of Cornyn’s efforts, we are now optimistic that Obama will be denied the opportunity to brag that he “broke the back of the gun lobby” through passage of either S. 54 or the universal gun registry bill.

We think that the Feinstein bill is such a “pig” that no amount of “lipstick” will make it acceptable. We therefore have no opposition to making a few political points through tough amendments to that bill — particularly amendments which Democrats are unable to accept.

But we do hope that you will agree with us that Senator Cornyn has been an indispensable defender of the Second Amendment in the current seminal battle to defend our constitutional rights.

Erich Pratt
Director of Communications
Gun Owners of America

Unquestionably, I agree with Erich that Sen. Cornyn has been an indispensable defender of the Second Amendment throughout his years in the Senate. And if his group is okay with making pointless amendments to try and underscore larger issues, then I have to accept that because Gun Owners of America is the group fighting hardest on the front lines of this issue. You should join this group because, unlike the NRA at times, they are always looking out for the Second Amendment. Just to show I have no hard feelings, I purchased a gift membership for Leo, a die-hard Cornyn supporter.