Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Sunday said that Republicans would block any effort to extend background checks to include private firearms sales unless Congress agreed to "eliminate the recordkeeping" on guns in the United States.

Coburn, who is one of four senators working for a bipartisan bill to expand background checks, recently refused to comment to The Washington Post about his position on keeping records on private sales, saying that "I don’t negotiate through the press."

But on Sunday, the Oklahoma senator drew a line in the sand.

"I don't think we're that close to a deal, and there absolutely will not be recordkeeping on legitimate law-abiding gun owners in this country," Coburn insisted. "And if they want to eliminate the benefits of trying to prevent the sales to people who are actually mentally ill and the criminals, all they have to do is create a recordkeeping. And that will kill this bill."

"So if you really want to improve it, you have to eliminate the recordkeeping and give people the right and the responsibility to do the right thing. And that's check on the [National Instant Criminal Background Check System] NICS list to make sure you're not selling a gun to somebody who's in one of those two categories."