On the recordDecember 3, 2015
The Manchin-Toomey amendment that is going to be up next, I am told, won't prevent the next shooting or reduce crime or fix our mental health system. We need to also be worried about protecting the Second Amendment. My amendment addresses the Obama administration's reduction in gun prosecutions by providing money to expand Project Exile and funding for prosecuting felons and fugitives who fail background checks, targeted to the highest crime jurisdictions. It criminalizes straw purchasing and gun trafficking, provides more resources for Secure Our Schools grants, and increases funding for mental health initiatives. It incentivizes States to provide mental health records to the background check database, clarifies what records should be submitted to the NCIS system, and it provides that military members can buy firearms in their State of residence or where they are stationed, so that what happened in Chattanooga doesn't happen again. Finally, this amendment also reduces funding to those municipalities that continue to defy the law with regard to the enforcement of immigration offenses, otherwise known as sanctuary cities. I ask for adoption of the amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
