On the recordMarch 19, 2018
I am pleased to learn that Senator Cory Booker, our colleague from New Jersey, is the 73rd cosponsor of the Fix NICS bill, which I have introduced and which I hope will be passed out of the Senate soon. This bill is designed to fix the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which, if it had been working the way it was designed to, would have caught the shooter at Sutherland Springs, perhaps saving the lives of 26 people who lost their lives in that little Baptist church outside of San Antonio; 20 more were shot and will suffer those wounds the rest of their lives. Today the news brought us the fact that apparently there had been a recommendation by mental health professionals that Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in Parkland, FL, be committed for involuntary treatment, but apparently that never materialized. That was the recommendation, but it never actually happened. If that had happened, under the current law, his name would have been included in the Florida upload of background check information, and that would have prevented him from legally buying a firearm. So we are starting to see the different data points that begin to paint a picture of the sorts of things that we could do here in Washington, DC, to save lives in these future mass shooting events. We know the President has said to the Department of Justice that he wants bump stocks banned. Of course, that was the instrument used to kill dozens of people in Las Vegas and injure 851 more.…
Source
govinfo.gov




