For most of his 22 years in the Senate, John Cornyn had pretty strong credentials as a supporter of gun rights and the Second Amendment. His voting record has been solid and he has pushed for nationwide concealed carry reciprocity in multiple sessions. Senate Bill 65, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2025, is just the latest version.
Cornyn won reelection with strong margins four times since December 2002, when he succeeded Phil Gramm as a Texas Senator. He was also regarded as the favorite to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader after the 2024 general election.
Unfortunately, he made a bad decision in May 2022 when he announced he would work with Chris Murphy, one of Connecticut’s rabidly anti-gun Senators, on red flag laws. This was almost immediately after the horrific murders at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; emotions were running high, as were demands for Congress to “do something.”
What resulted was the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, a legislative train wreck the Biden Administration promptly weaponized. Enhanced background checks for those under 21; an expanded definition of “being in the business” to require FFLs even when no gun changed hands; and grants for states to implement or improve red flag laws.
Cornyn may have had some input into this section. The BSCA added some conditions for those red flag laws. One of the new standards was a requirement that all rights, including Due Process, had to be incorporated into the laws. No more “ex parte” hearings, no more hearsay evidence: None of the things gun-grabbers love about red flag laws. Without them, according to the new law, the government was not allowed to offer any grants.
None of the red flag laws on books would be able to meet the requirements. Fortunately for red flag law fans, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris didn’t care and started handing out taxpayer dollars, including some money that reportedly went to states that didn’t even have red flag laws.
As best I can determine, there has never been one of these so-called compromise laws that didn’t result in a big hit on gun rights, and the BSCA carried on the tradition. Biden’s jihad against the Second Amendment was already well-known and any gun control bill he praised was sure to be bad news for American gun owners. Of course, the same could be said of any bill championed by Chris Murphy or Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s other Senator.
John Cornyn, for whatever reason, ignored the risks or misread the tealeaves. He was saddled with the blame for the BSCA. His political prospects now looked a lot like the Hindenburg in 1932.
He was booed at the Texas GOP Convention in 2022; former allies reconsidered their ties to Cornyn; and when the new Senate Majority Leader was selected, he lost to Jon Thune of North Dakota.
Cornyn will be up for reelection in the 2026 midterms. There’s a strong possibility he won’t even get through the Republican primary. We’re still well over a year away from the elections, but current polls show potential voters prefer Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and there’s even a reasonable chance Democrat Colin Allred could win, becoming the first Democrat Texans have sent to the U.S. Senate since 1993.
Might be time for John Cornyn to grab his pension and head home. It might also be a good time for Republicans, especially in the House, to be reminded that every one of them will be standing for reelection in November 2026. If we can remember something that happened three years ago, we can also remember things that didn’t happen in the 119th Congress.
After 30 years in the Senate, Cornyn should know one of the constants: Never, ever, not even once, be tempted to compromise with gun control. There are no compromises with gun control: They don’t understand what it means and they would avoid it like the plague if they did.
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