{"id":23030,"date":"2026-05-20T14:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/cornyn-backed-some-gun-control-measures-massie-opposed-them-all-it-may-not-have-helped-either\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:17:09","slug":"cornyn-backed-some-gun-control-measures-massie-opposed-them-all-it-may-not-have-helped-either","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/cornyn-backed-some-gun-control-measures-massie-opposed-them-all-it-may-not-have-helped-either\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornyn backed some gun control measures. Massie opposed them all. It may not have helped either."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One of the nation\u2019s leading gun safety groups has a message for Republicans: Tuesday’s results show you don\u2019t have to be scared of the pro-firearm lobby anymore.<\/p>\n

Giffords, a gun safety advocacy group cofounded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), is sending a memo to all Republican members of Congress today \u2014first shared with POLITICO<\/a> \u2014 noting that pro-firearm groups largely sat out both Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) primaries, even as the two represent opposite wings of the GOP spectrum on gun control.<\/p>\n

The ambivalence toward both one of the gun lobby\u2019s strongest allies and one of its biggest Republican boogeymen shows its waning power, Giffords argues.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommon logic has always been that the gun lobby can make or break you in a Republican primary,” Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, told Blue Light News. “Both of these primaries demonstrate a very different narrative: they just don’t have the juice anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massie is one of the staunchest Second Amendment defenders in Congress. The president of the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that sits to the right of the National Rifle Association, called him \u201cliterally the best vote for the 2A in Congressional history\u201d this week<\/a>. Cornyn, meanwhile, was one of the architects of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act<\/a>, a gun safety package passed in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in Cornyn\u2019s state.<\/p>\n

That legislation angered many pro-gun groups \u2014 the NRA said it would place \u201cunnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom\u201d by gun owners. But they largely sat out of Cornyn\u2019s reelection bid: The National Association for Gun Rights Inc. PAC spent only $5,000<\/a> backing Cornyn\u2019s opponent.<\/p>\n

“The data shows they can’t take you out if you’ve pissed them off \u2014 like John Cornyn \u2014 and they also can’t save you if you’ve done all they asked \u2014 like Thomas Massie,” Brown said.<\/p>\n

Cornyn\u2019s support for gun safety legislation is an issue in his primary<\/a>, as Attorney General Ken Paxton has slammed him for passing the \u201cworst gun control bill in decades.\u201d But a poll commissioned by Giffords of Texas GOP runoff voters found that attacks on Cornyn\u2019s gun record are far less resonant than other criticisms, such as his change of position on the SAVE America Act<\/a> and the suggestion he is a \u201cRepublican In Name Only\u201d or \u201cfake MAGA.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poll, shared first with POLITICO<\/a>, found Paxton leading Cornyn 52% to 40%. It was conducted by Global Strategy Group between May 6 and May 11, 2026, before Trump endorsed Paxton on Tuesday. The sample included 600 likely Republican runoff voters in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are a lot of reasons Texas Republicans may oppose John Cornyn, and he may get his ass kicked, but it’s not going to be because of [the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act],\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the nation\u2019s leading gun safety groups has a message for Republicans: Tuesday’s results show you don\u2019t have to be scared of the pro-firearm lobby anymore. Giffords, a gun safety advocacy group cofounded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), is sending a memo to all Republican members of Congress today \u2014first shared with Blue Light News […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}