Another misconception I heard on the campaign trail or saw on social
media was that we somehow created a mandatory waiting period before
somebody could access a firearm if they were going into a store to
purchase it for those under 21. Once again, this is false.
  Many individuals who create acts of violence like school shootings
have a history of violence, are known to local law enforcement, and are
essentially ticking timebombs. That is what happened in Uvalde, TX, 4
years ago. The Uvalde shooter was a deeply troubled young man known by
everybody in the neighborhood to be trouble, and there were warning
signs that, I think, demonstrated the fact that he was not only a
potential danger to himself but also others.
  He was isolated, a bully. He self-harmed. He had a history of
fighting, threatening fellow students, and abusing animals. He bought
weapons and ammunition within days of turning 18 because the juvenile
records in Texas were not uploaded into the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System like they are for adults.
  So there was virtually no possibility of any record of this
potentially derogatory or disqualifying information that would have
been available at the time of his purchase.
  If a person's record includes disqualifying criminal convictions or
mental health adjudication, it shouldn't matter whether it occurred a
day before their 18th birthday. And what the Bipartisan Safer
Communities Act allowed law enforcement officials to do was go back and
look at those juvenile records. That information must now be available
on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The BSCA
incentivizes States to upload these juvenile records, but it places a
strict time limit on how long the review process can take place. If a
determination is not made in that window, the purchase proceeds.
  Interestingly, far less than 1 percent of firearms background checks
are affected by the checks for under 21-year-old buyers that this bill
deals with, but yet we know that it has made a real difference.
  There was the 18-year-old attempting to purchase a long gun in
Nebraska who as a minor made terroristic threats and was placed in a
mental institution, or the 20-year-old drug dealer with a juvenile
felony adjudication who attempted to purchase a long gun in Arizona.
These individuals would have never been discovered before the
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
  States agree with its efficacy, including Texas, which passed the law
soon after the BSCA passed to ensure that juvenile mental health
records would be available to the National Instant Criminal Background
Check System.
  This leads me to another important provision in the BSCA, which gives
the Department of Justice tools to prosecute individuals for straw
purchases. So, for example, if a drug dealer knows that his or her
criminal conviction would disqualify them from purchasing a firearm
legally, they can't get their boyfriend or girlfriend to buy it for
them without violating the law. Straw purchases are the primary way
that criminals and illegal aliens arm themselves, and the Trump
administration has used these new criminal provisions enacted in the
BSCA to target cartel members.
  Ryan Routh, who made an attempt against President Trump's life at
Trump International golf course in September of 2024 acquired the gun
via a straw purchase because his prior criminal record would have
prevented him from buying it legally.
  Before BSCA, the only penalty a criminal faced for a straw purchase
was lying on their firearms transaction, a minor offense which many
prosecutors would not bother to pursue.
  The BSCA also created a new firearms trafficking law. Since drug
cartel members can't legally purchase firearms, they rely on firearms
traffickers to arm them and carry out their violence.
  Now because of this law, the Department of Justice has a tool to
combat cartel violence and prosecute individuals who engage in firearms
trafficking. Indeed, the Department of Justice has convicted 459
criminals under the straw purchasing and firearms trafficking laws--
459--while another 716 violent criminals are currently facing charges
under this law.
  So we all want our communities to be safe, but we also want to make
sure that we respect the rights of law-abiding citizens; and no law we
would pass restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens, were we to
do so, would make a difference. No law-abiding citizen is a threat to
their community.
  But this is one of the reasons why I was a vocal critic of President
Biden's open border policies which allowed millions of people to come
into the country, including some criminals and cartel members. It is
the reason why I opposed the ``defund the police'' movement that left a
wave of unchecked violence and crime in America's blue cities.
  And that is why working together with Senator Tillis, Senator Sinema,
and Senator Murphy, we made sure we passed a law which actually would
invest in mental health resources to identify individuals who were
suffering before they became a danger to themselves or others.
  We literally made the single largest investment when we passed this
law 4 years ago of community-based mental healthcare and made our
schools safer for all of our children so they can focus on why they are
in school in the first place: to learn.
  And parents don't have to worry at home about is my son or my
daughter going to be safe, all the while protecting the Second
Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.
  So as I reflect back on my time here in the U.S. Senate, there are a
few legislative accomplishments I have made that have helped the people
of Texas and our country at large--at least I hope that is the case--
but out of all of these, the BSCA was one of the most critical in
tangibly making the country safer for families and children.
  Parents may not know when they interact with security systems at the
entrance of their child's preschool that they are actually benefitting
from this law, but the BSCA has made a difference, and it will continue
to do so.
  So I am proud, working together with Senator Tillis and Senator
Sinema and Senator Murphy, that we were able to accomplish this even in
the face of organized opposition.
  What I did learn--and maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise to me--
is that there are cottage industries in Washington, DC, that spread
misinformation about legislation that is actually challenging to pass
because it does involve something like a constitutional right--the
Second Amendment--but strictly they do it for the purposes of raising
money from their membership for using in political campaigns.
  But the one reason we are here in the Senate, the one reason I am
proud to be here is because we are willing to take on some of these
hard, complex issues on occasion and to try to come up with tangible
results that benefit our constituents and all the American people.
  So I yield to Senator Tillis.
  Mr. TILLIS. Senator Cornyn, I would describe as probably the ultimate
statesman and gentleman here in the Senate. I am not.
  And so Senator Cornyn talked about all the merits of the bill, and we
stand by them. I should also say he gets special credit for a lot of
those provisions because they are in there because of his
participation.
  I have long said that I don't hold grudges, but I settle scores. And
today is a good day to settle a score on another anniversary of the
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
  We had a lot of people, actually organizations I have been a member
of in the past, spread a lot of false information about this bill. They
said it was going to be a red flag bill.
  Well, the fact of the matter is, there is funding in this bill for
red flag, for States that have implemented red flag laws. Here is the
little secret: not even Republican red flag States satisfy our rigorous
standards for due process, which is why they haven't applied for any
funding. They wouldn't qualify for it unless they changed their plans.
  So this didn't cause a wave of red State laws to be implemented.
Quite the contrary, it provided resources in behavioral health and
veterans courts and drug courts and family courts to help people that
may be in crisis ahead of them.
  Those same people who were saying: Send money now, support us because