Come on, Ted. (Reference to one of the greatest anti-Ted Cruz ads [1] ever.)
Ted Cruz was booed by a bunch of Texans today when he said that his plan to end school shootings is to place more armed police officers in schools. Which, as we all saw in Uvalde, doesn’t work.
Cruz spoke about guns and other contentious topics at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, where he was met with what appears to be a fairly liberal and progressive audience.
“Whenever you have a mass murder … you have Democrats in Washington, the step they immediately go to is we need to take away firearms from law-abiding citizens,” Cruz said, which got a few claps. “OK, you can clap for that except for the minor problem that it doesn’t work. If the objective is to stop these crimes, gun control is singularly ineffective.”
Cruz then said that gun control simply punished “law-abiding citizens” instead of criminals, though the audience obviously is aware that Cruz is just spewing the same recycled conservative talking points.
“If you want to stop crime,” Cruz said, “you target the bad guys. You target the criminals, the felons, the fugitives. You prosecute them, you put them in jail, you get them off the streets, and you also enhance security at vulnerable targets.”
Cruz then revealed his idea to stop school shootings, which didn’t go over very well.
“Two weeks ago, I stood on the Senate floor and tried to pass legislation I’ve introduced that would double the number of police officers in school,” Cruz said to a crowd of boos and jeers. “If we want to keep our kids safe, and I desperately want to keep our kids safe, the most effective step we can do is to have police officers there to protect them who can intercept a mass murderer before he gets into the school and stop them.”
Cruz was met with more jeers from the audience, this time specifically about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May that left 19 little kids dead. A total of 376 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting, though the gunman remained at large and shooting for over an hour. 376 officers is larger than the garrison that defended the Alamo. It is now believed that the shooter, Salvador Ramos, had never even shot a gun prior to that day. Videos showed the officers just standing there, basically afraid to move. Videos also showed the chief of police fumbling with a key trying to unlock a door. A report on the police response found that responding officers “failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” according to the Texas Tribune [2].
Cruz said that the Uvalde shooter was successful in his efforts because he was able to get into the school through an unlocked door, but members of the audience continued to yell back at him, knowing his plan was ridiculous.
“Look, if you have a solution to stop the deranged evil murderers, I’d love to hear it. My solution is to throw them in jail,” Cruz said. “Stop them before they commit these crimes. There are some we won’t know about beforehand, and the single best step to stop them is to have armed officers on campus that can stop them before they kill our kids.”
“But look, instead you guys can instead sing kumbaya with them and hope they’ll just stop, but what you’re proposing doesn’t work,” Cruz added, always having to be the asshole, acting like he’s smarter than everyone.
“Eighteen-year-old boys don’t need an AR-15,” someone from the audience yelled, prompting applause. Actually, no one needs an AR-15, unless they are in the military or a police force, and are therefore background checked and trained to use such dangerous weapons.
Come on, Ted.
.@tedcruz [3] says one of the most effective ways to prevent mass shootings is to "enhance security at vulnerable targets" and add more police in schools.
But experts say more law enforcement on campuses doesn’t necessarily make schools safer. https://t.co/HYwikriccm [4] #TribFest22 [5] pic.twitter.com/Y4VWyh0M3q [6]
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 24, 2022 [7]