By Jeremy Wallace AUSTIN BUREAU
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is doubling down on his call for closing loopholes in gun sales background checks despite withering criticism from other Republicans, conservative groups that have ardently supported him, and the National Rifle Association.
Even the Republican Party of Texas passed aresolution over the weekend rejecting any legislation that would include the enhanced background checks that Patrick supports.
After a gunman left seven people dead in a mass shooting through Midland and Odessa, Patrick said he was ready to take action and called for expanding background checks to include private stranger-to-stranger sales. Nearly two weeks of criticism from fellow Republicans and gun-rights advocates has not changed his position.
“I’m astrong NRA supporter and they’re a strong supporter of mine, but I believe they are wrong in not expanding background checks to stopping strangers from selling guns to strangers,” Patrick said in a Fox News interview after the second mass shooting in West Texas in just over a month.
Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, has made clear that he wouldn’t touch gun transfers between family members or with friends, but that caveat has done little to appease even his one-time allies who are blasting him publicly.
The state Republican Party launched a pre-emptive strike to stop Patrick and the Texas Legislature from expanding background checks or considering red flag laws to remove guns from those found by a court to pose a threat. The resolution passed on Saturday by the party’s executive committee declares enhanced background checks are “back door gun registraton schemes” that violate the Constitution.
The resolution futher “calls upon members of the Texas Congressional Delegation and members of the Texas Legislature to firmly reject Enhanced Background Checks” as nothing but “cleverly devised infringements of the God-given and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.”
Compared to Beto, Obama
On social media on Tuesday, the deep-pocketed conservative group Empower Texans compared Patrick to Democrat Beto O’Rourke for his new position on guns.
“Whether it is @BetoORourke wanting to outright seize your firearms, or @DanPatrick trying to manage what you do with them, it is sadly evident too many politicians are all too willing to betray our Constitution in the name of their own political power,” wrote Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans.
Patrick defended his stance in a response on Twitter directed at Empower Texans, whose political action committee has given $850,000 in campaign donations to Patrick over the last five years.
“You know my plan exempts family and friends, so apparently you are fine with selling your guns to total strangers who can’t pass a background check because they could be a violent felon or someone bent on mass violence,” Patrick said.
But it’s not just Empower Texans that turned on Patrick. Longtime NRA media personality Dana Loesch warned Patrick’s proposal would lead to a nationwide gun registry, which some Second Amendment advocacy groups vehemently oppose.
“Please explain how one criminalizes federally regulated private transfers (UCBs) without establishing a registry,” she said on Twitter, then asked why he hadn’t responded to her requests for an on-air interview.
The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action has compared Patrick’s stand to those of former President Barack Obama and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Patrick is countering by forcefully denying that he supports any type of gun registry.
“What I am proposing is that anyone who wants to sell a gun to a stranger simply go to a gun store and fill out the background check form,” Patrick said. “Then the gun can be exchanged and the deal is closed. This is NOT a ban on private gun sales and this change in the law will NOT lead to a gun registry. That is utter nonsense.”
Shamed by Cruz
On Wednesday, more criticism came from North Texas conservative radio host Mark Davis of 660 AM The Answer. Davis took offense at Patrick’s suggestion that those who opposed background checks on stranger-to-stranger sales are somehow OK with selling guns to violent felons or mass shooters.
“What an insult that is,” said Davis, who made it clear he’s usually a big supporter of Patrick’s. “What is going on here?”
Davis warned that Patrick is too ready to respond to public opinion polls for Republicans to “do something” about the recent shootings. He said passing more restrictions only opens the door for even more later. He publicly asked Patrick to call him during the show Wednesday. Patrick did not.
A former conservative radio host himself in Houston, Patrick has become one of the most prominent Republicans in the state since he unseated former Lt.Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican who was heavily favored in the 2014 primary election.
But Patrick in 2018 found himself in a far tighter re-election battle than most expected. After winning in 2014 in the general election by 19 points against Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, Patrick won re-election over underfunded Democrat Mike Collier by just 5 percentage points in 2018. It was the closest a Republican has come to losing the lieutenant governor’s office in 20 years.
As more conservatives pile on, Patrick isn’t getting much support from other Texas Republicans. Last week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was asked about Patrick’s proposal and compared it to the universal background checks that Democrats are pushing.
“The consistent focus of Democrats in Congress is precisely the proposal that you laid out — it is mandating that all private person-to-person sales have afederal background check,” he said according to the Dallas Morning News. “That’s a mistake.”
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn also distanced himself from Patrick on the issue. Asked by reporters about Patrick’s position, Cornyn said he was focused on federal issues.
Patrick did not respond to are-quest for comment Wednesday. jeremy.wallace@chron.com