Texas Senator part of bipartisan deal to strengthen gun background checks

WASHINGTON (KXAN/NBC) — A Texas Republican Senator is joining forces with a Connecticut Democrat to pass a bipartisan bill to strengthen background checks on firearms. The change is small but would end an unintended loophole that has led to mass shootings.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, have been quietly negotiating this bill, NBC News reported Wednesday, but the senators believe they could be on the verge of a compromise deal.

Democrats in the U.S. House passed a bill that would require background checks on almost all gun purchases, but that bill then stalled in the Senate.

This new bill from Cornyn and Murphy would clarify who exactly must register as a Federal Firearms Licensee and conduct FBI checks on people buying a gun. The current law’s ambiguity has allowed unlicensed sellers to “transfer weapons to dangerous people who skirt the background system,” NBC reports.