Republican Senator Ted Cruz is one of the most pro-gun members of Congress, and the aftermath of the horrific Uvalde school shooting in his state back in May seems to have only deepened his dedication to the gun lobby.
And if the crowd at a recent panel discussion he joined is any indication, people in his state have had it with him.
During a recent talk at The Texas Tribune Festival, Cruz as always touted the usual Republican boilerplate about solving school shootings by adding more armed police officers in schools.
He was immediately booed by the crowd and abruptly shut down by a heckler he tangled with.
See their argument below.
Cruz's comments came during a discussion of gun violence and the Uvalde shooting, during which he touted legislation he recently tried to pass that would double the number of armed police in schools.
Of course, the school in Uvalde infamously had its own dedicated police officers on staff who failed to stop the shooting, as did the swarms of additional law enforcement who first responded to the massacre. Accordingly, Cruz's tooting of his own horn was immediately met with boos.
Cruz immediately became defensive and condescending, telling the crowd:
"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. 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."
As the crowd became more incensed, Cruz turned to outright mockery, telling the crowd:
"Instead you guys can sing 'Kumbaya' with them and hope they'll just stop, but what you're proposing doesn't work."
That of course isn't true, as proven by statistical data on mass shootings worldwide.
More importantly, Cruz and other Republicans' proposal that more armed law enforcement be added to schools has been proven ineffective in multiple studies and has even been shown to make violence *worse* because of the well-documented "weapons effect."
Whether it was Cruz's total disregard for the facts or his arrogance—or both—his comments brought one audience member to the end of her patience.
She interrupted him to shout:
"Eighteen-year-old boys don't need an AR-15!"
The thunderous applause she received should be instructive to Cruz and the GOP.
On Twitter, Cruz's hecklers became heroes to many.
And Cruz's sneering mendacity and absurd proposals left many others disgusted.
So far, seven law enforcement officers are under investigation in the state of Texas for their failures to stop the Uvalde shooting.
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