Democratic Opponent To Ted Cruz Unites Americans To Overcome GOP Failures On Guns

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Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who has launched a campaign to take on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in next year’s elections, recently blasted the tradition of GOP inaction after mass shootings in remarks on the House floor. Allred was speaking after a mass shooting in Allen, Texas, where eight people, again including multiple young children, were killed. Cruz has largely stuck to the conventional idea of thoughts and prayers. The rhetorical bar is on the floor, but at least he’s not talking about doors again!

“I know how so many parents are feeling right now,” Allred told legislators. “The fear that the next time, it will be your family in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I also don’t believe that it has to be this way. I know it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to live like this. Our public places don’t have to become memorials… I am so sick and tired of hearing some politicians talk about what we ‘can’t’ do or saying that just raising the topic is dividing us.”

Allred, as others have, also noted some of the policies that are widely supported and that legislators could undertake, including raising the minimum age for purchasing key varieties of long guns, as they’re known. He also mentioned what are known as red flag laws, which are legal frameworks for blocking potentially dangerous individuals from access to firearms on a case by case basis. In such scenarios, a concerned third party ordinarily has to seek that action. Colorado recently expanded the list of individuals who could seek orders blocking gun access for individuals suspected of dangerous inclinations. Now, that list also includes various healthcare professionals. In Texas, a state legislative committee recently provided a surprising round of bipartisan approval for raising the age to buy disputed long guns, but it still required additional approval before even trying to get a signature from GOP Governor Greg Abbott, who like others in his party resists gun control.

Watch Allred below: