Ted Cruz: Expanded Background Checks Will Prevent Good Guys From Getting Guns
While dealing with Donald Trump and his sycophants claiming he’s ineligible to be President of the United States, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has still found time to remind everyone that he is a craven right-wing loon who will say whatever to appeal to gun nuts and racists. During a radio interview on Wednesday, he simultaneously dismissed Trump’s birtherism while slamming President Obama’s recent executive orders regarding gun violence.
Appearing on The Mike Gallagher Show, Cruz first stated that he isn’t concerned with Trump’s recent comments questioning his eligibility for the White House — Cruz was born in Canada to an American citizen — calling them “silly.” Now, this is sure to get under The Donald’s skin, which will cause him to hit Cruz on the campaign trail and on Twitter, but it is what he told Gallagher later on that is the real news.
Addressing Obama’s modest actions to require online and gun show firearm dealers to become licensed and perform background checks, Cruz claimed that POTUS was totally missing the point when it comes to gun violence. Sounding like an NRA spokesman, the Texas Senator regurgitated the tried and true ‘good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns’ meme so prevalent among the 2nd Amendment crowd.
“Here’s the consistent mistake that Barack Obama has had with respect to both crime at home and terrorism abroad: He fails to distinguish between good guys and bad guys. You don’t stop the bad guys by taking away our guns. You stop the bad guys by using our guns.”
Now, let’s just unpack this little nugget of nonsense. Say we buy into the notion that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Well, how do we determine who the good guys are? It would appear that one way would be to check every person attempting to purchase a firearm and see if they have a criminal record or a history of mental illness/psychological disorders.
So, why is Cruz against Obama’s latest actions? Ah, yes, Obama wants to take guns away from the good guys. And how is he doing that? By asking for more background checks. Wait, what? Thus is the contradictory nature behind much of the immediate Republican opposition to these latest measures. Seriously, shouldn’t a ‘good guy’ be able to pass a background check?
