Cornyn Touts Lifesaving Success of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

Cornyn Touts Lifesaving Success of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act News Cornyn Touts Lifesaving Success of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act July 15, 2026 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 and others. This law…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. As I reflect back on my time here in the United States Senate, there are a few legislative accomplishments I've made that have helped the people of Texas and our country at large…but out of all of these, the BSCA was one of the most critical in tangibly making the country safer for families and children. WASHINGTON – Earlier this week on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) highlighted the lifesaving success of his Bipartisan Safer Communities Act , which was signed into law four years ago last month, and held a colloquy with Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) to address some of the misconceptions about the legislation. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here . On Investments in Mental Health and School Hardening: “What [the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act] did do is made an historic investment in mental health and school safety and commonsense measures to prevent dangerous individuals from being a harm to themselves and others.” “Texas, like all the states, has received significant amounts of money, in the case of Texas, hundreds of millions of dollars, from this law – more than $312 million to date – to strengthen our mental health care and school hardening, to make it more difficult for violent individuals to attack soft targets like schools typically have been.” On Investments in Community Behavioral Health Clinics: “The BSCA, as it’s called, also expanded certified community behavioral health clinics around the country, which has allowed mental health clinics to expand their coverage to include not only mental health but substance abuse disorders.” “There are now more than 500 community-based mental health centers operating in 46 states.” On Red Flag Laws: “One of the things I heard most in the recent campaign I ran in was that we had passed a red flag law, which would make it possible for an aggrieved partner or spouse or family member or maybe even a neighbor to basically turn in somebody and have their firearms confiscated without due process of law.” “The truth is, the BSCA actually makes it harder to implement red flag laws because you can’t do so and access this money unless you enhance the due process protections that are necessary to protect what is a constitutional right.” “We wanted to make sure that the funding that was available was available for crisis intervention programs, veterans courts, mental health courts, just to use a couple of examples, that did not have those red flag laws, while making sure those states that did could not gain access to this money unless they provided an enhanced due process procedure.” “It’s false to argue that the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act created an incentive for more states to pass new red flag laws, and the statistics bear it out. Only 4% of the total money appropriated were obligated to red flag-related activities.” On Mandatory Wait Periods: “Another misconception I heard on the campaign trail or saw on social media was that somehow, we 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.” “If a person’s record includes disqualifying criminal convictions or mental health adjudications, it shouldn’t matter whether it occurred a day before their 18 th birthday, and what the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act allowed law enforcement officials to do is to go back and look at those juvenile records.” On Straw Purchases and Firearm Trafficking: “This leads me to another important provision in the BSCA, which gives the Department of Justice tools to prosecute individuals for straw purchases.” “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 BSC[A] to target cartel members.” “Before BSCA, the only penalty a criminal faced for a straw purchase was lying on their firearms transaction of minor offense, which many prosecutors would not bother to pursue.” “Now, because of this law, the Department of Justice has a tool to combat cartel violence and prosecute individuals who engage in firearms trafficking.” On His Legacy of Bipartisanship: “Working together with Senator Tillis, Senator Sinema, and Sena