Posted on 12/05/2015 8:17:45 AM PST by Isara
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday pushed back against claims that it was insensitive for him to hold a Second Amendment campaign event just days after a mass shooting under investigation as an act of terrorism.
"I really don't view our job as being sensitive to Islamic terrorists," the Republican presidential candidates said at a gun range in Johnston, Iowa, where he rolled out his Second Amendment Coalition, a group of gun rights advocates backing his GOP presidential bid.
"Liberal Democrats think it is insensitive to celebrate our constitutional rights in the wake of a terrorist attack," Cruz later told supporters. "It is these constitutional rights that keep us safe."
The event at Crossroads Shooting Sports came two days after a shooting in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead and 21 wounded. The FBI said Friday it was looking into the massacre as an act of terrorism, potentially with a connection to the Islamic State terrorist group. Cruz regularly blasts President Barack Obama for not taking the group seriously enough.
Texas' junior senator also routinely rips Obama for advocating increased gun control in the aftermath of mass shootings, but his remarks Friday were sharper and more extensive than usual.
Earlier Friday, Democrats criticized Cruz's shooting range appearance as tone deaf in light of the California massacre. They noted that a number of Republican senators, including Cruz, put themselves on the record against gun control measures as recently as Thursday night in Washington, D.C.
"It’s been one day since Ted Cruz voted against preventing people on a federal terrorism watch list from purchasing guns, and only two days since San Bernardino, yet Cruz and the GOP are doubling down against gun control,” Adrienne Watson, a spokesman for the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Correct the Record, said in a statement. "Though it’s irresponsible, it’s no surprise. But a shooting range? If we’re rewarding insensitivity, Ted Cruz takes the cake."
Cruz said the Second Amendment Coalition, a group of more than 24,000 gun rights advocates, includes more than 1,000 members in the first four early voting states. The coalition has five co-chairs: Tim Macy, president of Gun Owners of America; Bob Barr, a former U.S. representative from Georgia; Sgt. Patrick Perkins, president and co-founder of Heroes Hunting; Richard Rogers, a member of the Iowa Firearms Coalition board; and Dave Funk, a GOP activist from Iowa.
“Liberal Democrats think it is insensitive to celebrate our constitutional rights in the wake of a terrorist attack,” Cruz later told supporters. “It is these constitutional rights that keep us safe.”
A congressional visit to a radical mosque isn't tone deaf?
DAMN love me some Cruz talking about the 2nd!!!
Bravo, Sen. Cruz. Don’t let the Dems control the rhetoric.
Enemies foreign and domestic.
Liberals just can’t decide which one they want to be.
Terrorists will continue to attack places they believe to be “gun free zones”.
It is YOUR job to ensure there aren’t any.
Nobody can protect you except you.
The leftists are domestic enemies who want to import and protect foreign enemies.
“I really don’t view our job as being sensitive to Islamic terrorists,”
BTTT
Ted Cruz: “You don’t stop the bad guys by taking away our guns, you stop the bad guys by using our guns!”
Real Deal. I trust him. Not fully that other guy.
In fact the times have changed so until the usa and world decides to purge these folks into the muslim hellhole of choice , made a hellhole by their religion..ie their false God
It should be as in Israel now, with armed elders at every function..everyone has body armor, public needs armor/kevlar piercing bullets..the 2nd ammendment wasn’t to give the population the right to hunt, it was to protect itself from a run away government, and all other enemies.. You can’t do that with bb guns...
Awwwww, Watson is not a fan of Cruz's winning strategy echoing the belief of a majority of Americans that the best way to deal with terrorism is to shoot the b@st@rds? Color me shocked.
I’m right there with you. Not quite at the point of opposing the other guy, but not sure I trust him enough to support him.
Both?
Yesterday I heard John Lott on a radio show and he said that of the 700,000 folks on the terrorist watch list 2,000 bought a firearm and of those none were involved in a gun crime since. Expose the Demorat lies.
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