Texas Sen. John Cornyn, after delivering an emotional speech to the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, said he plans to introduce a bill today that will fix the clearly broken system which notifies firearms dealers if a prospective buyer is not allowed to make a purchase, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"One thing we know for sure, and I'm sure there will be more information as it comes out, but one thing we know for sure is that this individual should not have been able to purchase a firearm," Cornyn said.
The U.S. Air Force conceded that after the Sutherland Springs gunman was court martialed for domestic violence and served a year in prison, officials failed to upload his information into the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check system, which allowed him to legally purchase the weapons which were used to kill 26 people at the church on September 5.
"We need to fix this broken background check system," he said. "I will be introducing bipartisan legislation. My hope is we can expedite this, get it into law, and make sure this sort of thing never happens again."
Cornyn says the NIC should allow law abiding gun dealers to know if a prospective purchaser has a history of mental illness, a criminal history, or a felony conviction, any number of factors which should have stopped the Sutherland Springs gunman.
Cornyn also said any effort to beef up the system should include some level fo punishment for failure to act, although he didn't speculate on what that might be.
But Cornyn stopped short of calling for tighter restrictions on high powered weapons generally, noting that a Sutherland Springs resident with a legally purchased AR-15 stopped the gunman before deputies were able to respond.
Cornyn also joined a very emotional church service held in a tent near the site of the shooting.
Pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose own daughter was among the 26 people killed, announced the opening of the church as a memorial to the victims.
"I want the world to know, that that building will be open so everyone who walks in there will know that those people who died lived for their Lord and Savior, and would want them to live that way as well," he said. "Amen."
The church consists of 26 white chairs, one for each of the victims, each marked with a single red rose.
PHOTO; SEN. JOHN CORNYN