On the recordApril 17, 2013
the Senate will vote today on an amendment that I am offering for myself, Senator Cruz, Senator Graham, and many others, as a substitute. I believe that the underlying bill infringes on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and it does not provide for adequate measures against criminals who commit gun violence. My approach is much better than the Manchin-Toomey amendment. The current background check database, called NICS, is broken. Not enough accurate information on prohibited persons is making its way into the database. This is particularly true for mental health records. Checking firearms purchasers against an incomplete database will not be effective in stopping prohibited persons from gaining access to guns. Additionally, we should not further strain the existing, broken system by expanding the use of an incomplete database to more transactions, as Manchin-Toomey would. We should fix the existing system. And that is what my amendment does. First, we should reauthorize NICS. So the Grassley-Cruz amendment reauthorizes NICS Improvement Act grants to States for providing mental health records. The amendment codifies one of President Obama's Executive orders that requires the Attorney General to issue guidance to federal agencies about which records they must submit to NICS.…
