Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick may be able to find the votes in the Texas Legislature to change a loophole in the background check system for gun sales, but the bigger question is whether they can sell it to their own constituents, says Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak.
Patrick recently came out publicly in favor of closing a loophole that allows a gun buyer who failed a background check to obtain one anyway through a private transaction between individuals, where no check is required. There are indications that Abbott’s thinking has moved in the same direction.
“I think Lt Gov. Patrick feels – and I think the governor also feels – that they have to do something meaningful after both El Paso and Odessa,” explained Mackowiak, who runs the Must Read Texas newsletter and also heads the Travis County GOP.
He pointed out that the shooter in the Odessa mass shooting “failed a background check on mental health grounds yet was able to purchase a gun through a private sale.” Mackowiak was speaking with radio host Chad Hasty on Lubbock’s KFYO 95.1.
“My guess is the governor is on board with the lieutenant governor – I imagine they’re aligned because they both are taking some political risk here in doing this. I think they want to be able to say that they did something that prevented another Odessa situation from occurring,” Mackowiak said.
A source confirmed to Honest Austin after the governor’s first roundtable after the El Paso shooting last month that both Abbott and Patrick expressed interest in “closing stranger to stranger sales.”
“They were asking a lot of questions about closing what Patrick calls ‘stranger-to-stranger’ sales. I think they want to to do something on that but how to approach that there weren’t many specifics. But it was agreed that that would help,” said the source, who participated in the roundtable.
Mackowiak commented, “It’s a question now of: Can they sell it? Number one, can they convince gun owners that this won’t be a significant burden on them, and number two, that it’s necessary?”
The National Rifle Association has criticized Patrick in a recent statement, saying, “With due respect, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s ‘proposals’ would resurrect the same broken, Bloomberg-funded failures that were attempted under the Obama administration.”
“Like most political gambits, Lt Gov. Patrick’s ‘solution’ precedes his possession of the facts, including this critical concession by the Obama administration: Criminalizing private firearm transfers would require a massive, government gun registration scheme.”
However, Mackowiak says that by his understanding Patrick’s proposal would not create a national or state gun registry. Those wanting to conduct a private sale simply would need to go to a gun shop to get the background check done there, then they could proceed with their transaction.
Patrick has fired back at the NRA in interviews with Fox News, the Dallas-Morning News, and in an email to supporters. He said that it is “common sense” to tighten background checks, pointed out that President Trump supports the measure, and said that the NRA “needs to get behind” Trump on the issue. He also argued that by refusing to compromise the NRA ultimately would endanger the Second Amendment rather than protect it.
Because of Patrick’s role as leader of the Texas Senate, he could potentially play an instrumental role in shepherding legislation on stranger-to-stranger gun sales through the Legislature. Mackowiak commented, “I imagine it probably can pass the House. Whether it can pass the Senate I think is an open question. Would Patrick put it on the floor and have it pass the Senate if it passed with, let’s say, two-thirds or even all the Democrats and just a handful of Republicans? I think that’s an open question.”
Radio host Chad Hasty asked Mackowiak, “The legislature doesn’t meet for a couple of years. Is this enough to call a special session?”
GOP strategist Mackowiak responded that the answer to that depends on whether the recently formed House and Senate select committees make any progress in finding a consensus: “If there was significant bipartisan support for this idea or for some other ideas that would… increase the confidence the governor has that something meaningful would happen [in a special session].”
He added, “I think the governor’s inclination on this is to not do a special session. He doesn’t like special sessions, he doesn’t think they’re necessary. That calculation could change if a consensus develops and I think we’re still a ways away from that.”
Texas Senate Photo: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
UPDATE, 9/12/2019, 1:00 p.m.: Gov. Abbott has released a ‘Safety Action Report‘ calling for background checks in private gun sales to be voluntary and encouraged, but not mandatory. He wrote, “The Legislature should consider ways to make it easy, affordable, and beneficial for a private seller of firearms to voluntarily use background checks when selling firearms to strangers.”
