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Texas Sen. John Cornyn got booed by attendees at the state’s GOP convention on Friday over his involvement in negotiating a bipartisan bill focused on gun reform and mental healthcare after recent mass shootings in America.
Cornyn’s speech at the Texas GOP convention on Friday was nearly 20-minutes long and attendees shouted at the Senator for almost the entire speech, according to The Houston Chronicle.
“No gun control!,” the crowd shouted, according to the report.
“I’m as passionate as you are about something called the United States Constitution,” Cornyn said during the speech, according to the report.
SEN. CORNYN DEFENDS BIPARTISAN GUN DEAL AFTER CONSERVATIVE CRITICISM OF PROPOSED ‘RED FLAG LAWS’
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, questions Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Cornyn began negotiating the bipartisan gun control and gun violence prevention bill with Democrats after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary School on May 24, which left 19 children and two adults dead.
After being booed at the event, Cornyn’s Twitter account re-tweeted a journalist who reported that the Senator told several people “I’ve never given in to mobs and I’m not starting today.”
The incident comes amid Cornyn’s involvement in a bipartisan group focused on crafting a gun control and gun violence prevention bill. A framework for the potential bill was announced last week, and included the Texas senator’s support.
The framework includes measures to implement an enhanced review process for people who want to purchase firearms and are under the age of 21, penalties for straw purchases, more funding for school resource officers, an expansion of mental health programs in schools, and an expansion of mental health services for children and families.
Specific deals are still being ironed out; however, Cornyn left Washington, D.C. on Thursday without a deal with Democrats, and said that “we’re not ready to release any smoke. So we don’t have a deal yet.”
FILE – Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, talk to reporters following a closed-door policy meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. In the aftermath of recent horrific mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, a bipartisan group of senators, including Cornyn and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., are holding private virtual meetings during recess to try to strike a compromise over gun safety legislation.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
When asked on Thursday if the group has given themselves a deadline, Cornyn said “Yeah, it’s fish or cut bait.”
“Indecision and delay jeopardize the likelihood of a bill because you can’t write what is undecided and without a bill there is nothing to vote on,” he tweeted on Thursday.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters on Thursday that he remains optimistic and still expects a deal.
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“A lot of decisions got made over the last two hours. There were a lot that’s why we had staff in the room,” Tillis said.
