Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said on Wednesday the 80-page bipartisan gun reform legislation has "constitutional deficiencies" he hopes to correct through amendments.
"Unfortunately, this legislation was assembled as many are — in secret, absent well-placed leaks to journalists," tweeted Paul. "There doesn't appear to be a willingness or time provided to read, understand, debate or amend this bill."
Less than two hours after the final text was circulated, the U.S. Senate voted 64-34 Tuesday night to advance the bill.
"They didn't even give us the actual bill to vote on it. They gave us a blank piece of paper and said, 'Vote on this and trust us as to what the legislation will be when it comes forward and trust that there'll be an actual amendment process,'" said Paul to The National Desk's Jan Jeffcoat.
"We had a larger group of 20 senators, 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, come together and sign on to an agreed set of principles, and I believe that as the senators see the text that supports those principles, they will see we’ve tried our best to be true to what those agreed principles should be," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX., on the floor of the Senate Tuesday.
Paul said he takes issue with so-called "red-flag" laws, which are gun control laws that permit law enforcement to remove firearms from a person who they believe may be a danger to themselves or others. The legislation does not include a federal "red-flag" law, but does encourage states to implement their own through a proposed $750 million in grants.
"These are called ex-parte hearings where a judge hears an accusation. In some states, the accusation is actually from an anonymous source. So under no condition would I think that your second amendment rights will be taken away with an accusation by an anonymous person," said Paul. "I could be persuaded to vote for some aspects of this bill, but you'd have to have an amendment process to try to cure the constitutional deficiencies. I don't think you can take guns away without letting someone have a lawyer and without letting someone actually be accused of a crime in court in public. You have to be notified of what you're being accused of. You can't just have your gun rights taken away without even having a lawyer present."
Watch the full interview below.