Conservative Texas donors call for gun reform action like red flag laws

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Major Republican donors, together with some which have contributed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaigns, joined different conservative Texans in signing an open letter supporting congressional action to extend gun restrictions in response to the mass capturing in Uvalde that left 19 kids and two academics lifeless final week.

The letter, which is predicted to run as a full-page advert within the Dallas Morning News on Sunday, endorses the creation of red flag laws, increasing background checks and elevating the age to buy a gun to 21. More than 250 self-declared gun lovers signed it.

“Most law enforcement experts believe these measures would make a difference,” the letter reads. “And recent polls of fellow conservatives suggest that there is strong support for such gun-safety measures.”

The letter voices assist for Texas’ senior senator, John Cornyn, who has been tapped to guide bipartisan negotiations in Congress over potential gun reform measures.

“We are grateful that our Senator John Cornyn is leading efforts to address the recent tragedies in Uvalde and elsewhere across our great Country,” the letter says. “He’s the right man to lead this bipartisan effort, as he has demonstrated throughout his career.”

In an interview with Politico, Cornyn burdened that he was not inquisitive about “restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens under the Second Amendment,” however mentioned it will be “embarrassing” if Uvalde didn’t spark Congress to succeed in some kind of bipartisan legislative response.

The letter was paid for by Todd Maclin, a former senior government at J.P. Morgan Chase who now runs the Dallas-based finance agency Maclin Management. Maclin mentioned he’s a conservative gun proprietor who has been stirred to action by the capturing in Uvalde.

“These events have really motivated me and really gotten under my skin and encouraged me to support the effort that’s underway,” Maclin instructed The Texas Tribune. “I just felt like I needed to do something, and I also believe that there are reasonable things that can be done.”

He mentioned he’s nonetheless listening to from extra conservative gun house owners who’re feeling a “great sense of urgency and a great need to support [Cornyn] as he does his best to address these issues.”

Maclin mentioned the group is specializing in federal laws, which he believes is the most effective avenue to passing gun security laws and guaranteeing they’re utilized uniformly throughout the nation. He declined to touch upon the state response to the capturing or gun laws, besides to say that he hopes any federal plan led by Cornyn and handed with conservative assist could be embraced by state governments.

Among the signatories are deep-pocketed Abbott supporters, together with billionaires Robert Rowling, whose holding firm owns Omni Hotels, and Ray L. Hunt, government chairman of Hunt Consolidated Inc.

The contents of the letter are according to insurance policies Abbott and different get together leaders, together with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have supported previously — although not those they’re endorsing now.

After the 2018 faculty capturing in Santa Fe, exterior Houston, Abbott supported “red flag” laws, which might permit native officers to take somebody’s weapons away if a decide declares them to be a hazard. He later dropped his assist for the measure, citing a “coalescence” towards it from his personal get together.

The subsequent yr, after back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa, Patrick mentioned he was “willing to take an arrow” from the National Rifle Association and assist increasing background checks.

The subsequent time the Legislature met, nonetheless, lawmakers as an alternative handed a regulation that permits Texans to hold a handgun with no license or coaching.

This time, neither Patrick nor Abbott have expressed any assist for tightening gun laws. They have as an alternative supplied recommendations which have ranged from increasing psychological well being providers and minimizing the entrances to high school buildings to doing shock safety checks.

On the federal degree, each Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz have A+ rankings from the NRA and are high Senate recipients of gun trade donations. But they’ve taken differering tacks in response to the capturing in Uvalde.

Cruz mentioned within the wake of the bloodbath that passing laws that prohibit gun entry “doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.” But Cornyn has proven a willingness, now and previously, to assist some bipartisan gun laws.

In the wake of the 2017 Sutherland Springs capturing exterior San Antonio, Cornyn labored with Democratic colleagues to enhance the background test system to stop felons and home abusers from buying firearms.

He has additionally supported banning “bump stocks,” which permit semi computerized weapons to fireplace sooner, and shepherded into regulation a invoice that funded the screening and remedy of offenders with psychological sickness.

After final week’s capturing, Cornyn has mentioned he’s “not interested in making a political statement,” however is targeted on making “the terrible events that occurred in Uvalde less likely in the future.”

Disclosure: Politico has been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Find an entire checklist of them right here.

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