AUSTIN — With the mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa that killed 29 people last month fresh on Texans’ minds, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he will lead the charge to close loopholes in gun laws that allow private sales between individuals without the background checks that are required for retail sales.

Patrick hit the media circuit Friday, saying on Fox News the National Rifle Association is “wrong” to resist regulation of stranger-to-stranger gun sales and telling the Dallas Morning News he is willing to “take an arrow” and defy the NRA to push for stronger background checks.

“I’m a strong NRA supporter and they’re a strong supporter of mine, but I believe they are wrong in not expanding background checks to stopping strangers from selling guns to strangers,” Patrick said in the Fox News interview. “They don’t know who they’re selling to. It could be a felon, it could be someone getting ready to rob a bank, or someone ready to commit a mass act of violence.”

Patrick said he wants to retain the rights of friends and family to sell guns to each other without background checks, and suggested that other private parties buying and selling guns could arrange with a retailer to conduct the background checks for them.

The lieutenant governor’s comments mark the third different initiative that Texas Republican leadership has announced to approach gun violence since Tuesday. First, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Patrick — who leads the Senate — each created a select committee to recommend policies. Then Gov. Greg Abbott announced a series of executive orders to strengthen a statewide system that collects reports of suspicious activity and reviews them.

Democrats have called on Abbott to bring lawmakers back to Austin for a special session on gun violence and are advocating for further reforms despite a Republican-dominated Legislature with a record of pro-gun legislation.

The governor’s office said “all strategies are on the table” and challenged Democrats to find consensus with Republicans.

The NRA, which endorsed Patrick in 2018, fired back at him Friday, saying his proposal for background checks “would resurrect the same broken, Bloomberg-funded failures that were attempted under the Obama administration,” referring to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who pushed gun control measures.

“Criminalizing private firearm transfers would require a massive, governmental gun registration scheme. Instead of trampling the freedom of law-abiding Americans, the government should focus upon actual solutions: fixing our broken mental health system, prosecuting known criminals and enforcing the existing gun laws that require follow-up whenever a prohibited person tries to buy a firearm,” the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action said in a statement.

Roughly a fifth to a quarter of all gun sales are done without background checks, according to a recent survey published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A 2016 survey of prison inmates found that about one in four people who possessed a firearm during their offense obtained it from a family member or friend, or as a gift, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Seven percent said they purchased the firearm under their own name from a licensed dealer. The rest had either stolen the gun, found it at the scene of the crime or acquired it on the street or from an underground market.

Patrick’s push for stronger background checks comes as the state reels from a pair of mass shootings in August. The first was in El Paso where a 21-year-old man gunned down 22 people at a busy Walmart as shoppers took advantage of a tax-free holiday to stock up on back-to-school supplies. He reportedly told police he was targeting “Mexicans.”

The latest shooting was in West Texas on Labor Day weekend when a 36-year-old man went on a rampage after he was fired from his job. He first shot at a Texas state trooper during a traffic stop, then drove away, killing seven people indiscriminately as he made his way from Midland to Odessa. He was shot and killed by police outside a busy movie theater.

In 2014, the gunman had tried to buy a firearm but failed a background check due to a “mental health” issue, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. He obtained the assault-style rifle he used in the shooting from a private seller in a transaction that did not require a background check.

Texas has been home to five major mass shootings in the last three years: In addition to the West Texas and El Paso mass shootings last month, five police officers were killed in Dallas by a lone gunman in 2016; 26 parishioners were killed inside a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017; and 10 students and staff died after a student opened fire at Santa Fe High School in 2018.

Patrick flip draws doubt from Democrats

Patrick did not answer questions from the Morning News about whether Abbott will call a special legislative session to address gun violence, or whether strengthening background checks would win approval in the Senate. Without a special session, the Legislature could not change the law until it next convenes in 2021.

“Someone in the Republican Party has to take the lead on this,” he told the newspaper. If Republicans can pass common sense laws, he said it could stave off Democrats from passing “draconian laws that dramatically impact our 2nd Amendment rights” should they one day take take control of the White House and Congress.

Patrick’s office did not respond to an interview request from Hearst Newspapers.

For subscribers: In response to mass shootings, Gov. Abbott moves to strengthen ‘suspicious activity’ reporting

In the immediate aftermath of the El Paso shooting, Patrick made a case that a “video game industry that teaches young people to kill” is in part to blame for an increase in mass shootings. Democrats argue he is being disingenuous by now focusing on background checks.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party. “We hope he’s serious but (that) remains to be seen.”

It is already a federal felony to sell, trade, give, lend, rent or transfer a gun to a person you know or should have known is not legally allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm. State law also provides penalties for similar unlawful conduct.

Patrick, considered one of the most conservative Republican leaders in Texas, has opposed other gun regulations as mass shootings continue to occur in Texas. After the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School, Abbott requested lawmakers to consider a “red flag” law that would allow a court to temporarily remove firearms from those deemed a danger to themselves or others. Patrick was an outspoken critic of such laws and has maintained they would be a tough sell.

While lawmakers focused on improving school safety during the last legislative session, eight laws that eased restrictions on guns went into effect on Sept. 1, the day after the Odessa shooting. Those laws included lifting the cap on the number of armed school staff on campus, a practice that has grown in popularity since the high school shooting. The laws enacted this month include one striking down a ban of firearms in churches and one that reduces fines for people who unknowingly carry a firearm into a prohibited area.

Patrick and other Republican lawmakers have worked well with the NRA and the Texas State Rifle Association in recent years, but the advocacy group has contributed nominal amounts of money in the last election cycle, compared to other interest groups. The pro-gun groups gave about 40 Texas lawmakers a total of over $30,000 last year, mostly in the form of $500 checks, state records show.

Since 2017, the groups have given Abbott's campaign $2,500, Patrick's campaign $2,000 and Bonnen $1,500.

The sums are hardly remarkable considering the state imposes no contribution limits, but the Texas group's former legislative director Alice Tripp told the Chronicle earlier this year that its strength is more in its promotion of pro-2nd Amendment candidates with the help of its 37,000 members.

For subscribers: On day after Midland shooting, Texas loosens gun laws

On Thursday, Abbott announced a string of executive orders to prevent future mass shootings, including speeding up the deadline for local law enforcement to report convictions to the Criminal Justice Information System, apparently aimed at strengthening the National Instant Criminal Background System for gun purchases. Abbott plans to release a list next week of other ideas lawmakers could consider.

Jerry Patterson, the former land commissioner and Republican state senator who authored the state’s concealed carry laws, said he couldn’t recall any previous efforts to expand background checks in Texas. He said he admires Patrick for getting out front of the gun-control reform that appears inevitable.

“There is something going to happen in Congress and the Legislature,” he said. “If we buck up and say ‘No way!’ and ‘Hell no!’ we might come out with something worse than what we want. We can’t just keep doing and saying the same things we’ve been doing and saying.”

Although he said he personally supports better mental health reporting, he acknowledged expanded background checks enjoy wide support. “If Republicans think it’s going to work to do nothing and win elections, it’s not — they’re going to lose elections.”

Eric Dexheimer and Taylor Goldenstein contributed to this report.