Cornyn accuses O’Rourke of setting back gun debate

WASHINGTON — Beto O’Rourke isn’t running against John Cornyn, but that didn’t stop the Republican senator from going after the Democratic presidential hopeful for his vow to confiscate assault-style weapons if elected.

Cornyn told reporters Tuesday that O’Rourke “has thrown gasoline” on the gun debate raging in Washington with his call for mandatory buybacks of AR-15s and AK-47s, and a ban on those weapons.

“Unfortunately, I think he set back the debate a lot — maybe not just years, but decades,” Cornyn said. “We’re going to try to not be distracted by that.”

His comments come amid what Cornyn called “very active discussions” on Capitol Hill about potential legislation on *guns as Congress returns from a weekslong summer recess bookended by mass shootings in Texas that killed 29 people and injured several dozen more.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who Democrats have accused of stalling a bill the House of Representatives passed earlier this year to expand background checks for firearm purchases — has said he’d be “happy” to bring to the Senate floor any legislation supported by the president.

Cornyn said discussions are ongoing “both with the administration and with the House to try to see what makes sense and what package we can come up with.” Potential legislation could emerge as early as “the last part of this week,” he said.

Cornyn said Trump has been meeting with lawmakers from both parties, including Sens. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Joe Man-chin, a West Virginia Democrat.

“I think he’s been trying to find some way to bring Republicans and Democrats together that would save lives … but not infringe on the rights of law-abiding Americans,” Cornyn said, contrasting those conversations with the buyback calls from O’Rourke, who drew the spotlight during last week’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston by declaring that “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”

“As you know, Beto O’Rourke has thrown gasoline on this discussion, which I think had been proceeding along a pretty calm, rational and logical path, by suggesting even law-abiding citizens would see their AR-15s, AK-47s confiscated by the federal government,” Cornyn said. “But we’re going to try to not be distracted by that and try to come up with solutions that the president can agree to and where we can get bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate.”

Several of the Democrats vying to take on Cornyn in 2020 have called for similar buyback programs. Asked how he believes the race is shaping up, Cornyn said he’s watching how his would-be challengers handle “the way the national party has run so hard to the left.”

“I think it’s going to force the Democrats in the Senate primary to either adopt similar policy positions, which I think will be particularly toxic to Texas voters, or to part with their own party and donor base across the country,” Cornyn said. ben.wermund@chron.com