It’s getting tiring at this point to hear Republican after Republican attack Democrats for wanting stricter gun control after incidents of horrific gun violence like the one that unfolded Wednesday in Parkland, Florida. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but what it boils down to is that if you want to see gun control enacted, then you must elect Democrats to Congress in the midterm elections later this year.
One of the latest Republicans to attack Democrats for their calls for gun violence in the wake of shootings like the one in Parkland is Texas’ Senator Ted Cruz, who did so during a Thursday morning appearance on the president’s favorite television show, Fox & Friends.
Cruz’s state saw one of the more recent high profile mass shootings to rock the United States, when on November 5, 2017, a gunman stormed a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and killed 26 people.
He referenced this in his remarks while on Fox, telling host Ainsley Earhardt:
‘The reaction of Democrats to any tragedy is to try to politicize it. So they immediately start calling that we’ve got to take away the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. That’s not the right answer. I can tell you, in Sutherland Springs, I was there the day after the shooting… When I was at the hospital with the victims, with the victims’ families, over and over again what they said to me in Texas — they said gun control is not the answer here.’
Something makes it hard to believe that the families of the victims of the Sutherland Springs massacre were just sitting around and waiting for Cruz to pay them a visit so they could tell him to fight for “gun rights.” Even if they still support gun rights, it’s hard to believe that such was very high on the priorities list of any significant number of the victims’ families.
Check out the video of Cruz’s appearance on Fox below.
.@tedcruz: “The reaction of Democrats to any tragedy is to try to politicize it. So they immediately start calling that we’ve got to take away the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.” pic.twitter.com/SXx7bXWQiO
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 15, 2018
He went on after his initial comments to cite alleged mental illness as an underpinning for the shooting, saying that’s the issue that needs to be addressed in order keep incidents like the Parkland shooting — in which 17 people died — from happening again.
In so doing, Cruz echoed comments from the president, who took to Twitter Thursday morning to seemingly assert that the community members of Parkland bear some responsibility for the shooting because they didn’t report the shooter’s history of questionable behavior to authorities.
Among those who have established themselves on the opposite side from Cruz and the president and called for stricter gun control in the wake of the Parkland shooting is former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and critically injured some years ago, but survived and ended up becoming a vocal advocate for common sense gun control.
As a part of a lengthy statement, she wrote:
‘Even in our grief, we must summon the courage to fight against this fear. We must find the courage to imagine a country where these massacres do not occur. Our leaders must find the courage to escape the confines of their politics & pursue the moral necessity of peace & safety.’
In another public statement from a prominent Democrat, Rep. Seth Moulton wrote as follows in response to a message of condolences from the president:
‘I agree with every word
@realDonaldTrump said here. I invite him to get off his ass and join me in trying to do something about it.’
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
