Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) noted during Breitbart News Saturday on June 18 that Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) bipartisan gun control deal rests on using “federal money to bribe states to enact red flag laws.”
On June 12, 2022, Breitbart News noted that the Senate announced a bipartisan gun control agreement. The agreement was the result of work Sen. Cornyn was doing for gun control on behalf of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
One of the key proposals in the agreement focuses on red flag laws, stating that it is designed to provide “resources to states and tribes to create and administer laws that help ensure deadly weapons are kept out of the hands of individuals whom a court has determined to be a significant danger to themselves or others, consistent with state and federal due process and constitutional protections.”
Gaetz reacted to this proposal, noting, “In Florida, we have a red flag law, which is not good. We should not have one.” He added, “I wish we didn’t. … In our state, we had 8,000 utilizations of the red flag law. Under the Senate plan, maybe we would get more money if we used our red flag law more often.”
He suggested the Senate plan is “literally using the federal government to bribe the states to deprive citizens of their Second Amendment rights.”
Gaetz stated, “The greatest threat to the Second Amendment right now? Weak Senate Republicans who just want their name on something.”
Gaetz’s comments on Cornyn and the other Republican senators who signed off on the gun control agreement come one day after Cornyn was booed at the Republican Party of Texas Convention. Some in the audience chanted, “Go back home!” as Cornyn spoke:
The Senate gun control agreement also proposes adding an “investigative period” to background checks for people who are 18-20 in age.