Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) told Fox News on Monday that the ability for strangers to sell guns to strangers without a background check is a “loophole” that needs to be addressed.

Patrick said it is an “issue” the National Rifle Association (NRA) should take up and “get behind the president.”

He told host Jon Scott:

I think one of the things, Jon, we have to do in this country is, take a strong look at this ability for people to buy a weapon when they’ve been turned down by a background check. … I believe, as a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, we should protect that family transfer or family sale. But any stranger-to-stranger, however — we don’t know how this person got their gun, but we do know that that’s a real loophole in the law.

Patrick added, “Because I’m a gun owner, I’m never going to sell my gun to someone I don’t know that — do they have a criminal record, are they a danger to other people, are they ready to commit evil? There’s no need for that.”

Patrick’s comments came after a gunman used a rifle acquired in a private sale to shoot innocents in Midland and Odessa, Texas, on Saturday. Patrick did not mention that private sales have been legal since December 15, 1791, the day the Second Amendment was ratified.

Background checks were put in place for retail gun sales in 1998. Prior to that, all sales, retail or private, were handled without any type of government oversight.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.