At present, control of the U.S. Senate after the midterms later this year remains thoroughly up in the air. Republicans could lose seats as previously solidly red as Ted Cruz’s Texas spot.
What’s clear in the meantime, though, is the legacy that the Republicans currently serving in D.C. have established for themselves. In the face of continued, intense gun violence across the nation, they’ve failed to take wide ranging action to stop the violence. A grieving mother confronted Cruz over this failure at a campaign stop this past Thursday night.
While speaking at a restaurant in Webster, Texas, Rhonda Hart stood up on a chair and yelled:
‘Don’t disrespect my daughter. My daughter died. My daughter died.’
Her daughter was among some eight students killed in a May shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. No number of casualties, though, will deter at least some Republicans from their pro-gun path. For instance, the state’s Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick asserted it’s “not about guns, it’s about us” in the aftermath of the shooting. No individual hellbent on violence will be able to kill as many people with a knife or many other small weapons as they can with a gun, though. That’s the way it works — and at present, the carnage continues.
Hart explained to a local ABC station:
‘I wanted to be able to call [Cruz] out — his inaction regarding the children of Santa Fe. Children died under his watch and he accepts money from the NRA. There is still not any sort of common-sense reform.’
Watch below.
Reforms that Republicans have put forward are, for many, decidedly not “common-sense.” For instance, at the Texas Senator’s Thursday night rally, he called on schools to have more armed guards. In other words, he presented the “good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns” argument.
There are nuances to the situation that proposal doesn’t address though. During the unfolding of a mass shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School earlier this year, an armed guard stationed at the school failed to appropriately respond to what was happening. He stayed outside the building and eventually resigned in the face of intense scrutiny.
The issue touches on an important component to the situation. Good guys with guns aren’t magical problem solvers. They’re humans who can screw up too — and sometimes, the situation swings the other way. During the unfolding of a night of terror in Texas itself in recent years for instance, people legally toting their massive firearms kept authorities from quickly identifying who was sniping police.
Cruz should know this, and care. However, he doesn’t seem to.
The prominent Republican may soon face the consequences. A recent credible poll had his Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke leading with a two percent margin. Additionally, the Cook Political Report now has his race rated as a “toss-up,” whereas just recently, they rated it “lean Republican.”
Analysts have quipped that if Democrats manage to topple Cruz, there’s no way they’re not pulling off taking control of the U.S. Senate as a whole.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
