“Mmmm. Machine gun bacon.” If you haven’t seen Ted Cruz’s famous video from his presidential campaign, you should. It’s a classic.

Actress/activist Alyssa Milano got her requested live-streamed “debate” Tuesday with Ted Cruz in his Senate office. She brought along some re-enforcement, too. Democrat activist and father of a murdered high school student in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Fred Guttenberg, and Ben Jackson, co-founder of #NoRA, an anti-NRA organization. Cruz, well-known for his debating skills, held his own and never raised his voice.

The conversation – it wasn’t a debate – was the result of a Twitter exchange between Milano and Cruz over guns. Cruz, who told Milano Tuesday that he is a fan who grew up watching her on television, responded to a tweet Milano posted asking where in the Bible the right to own guns is mentioned. She used her dramatic skills, even as she began the conversation. She quickly was on the verge of tears, spoke with a catch in her voice, and wiped her eyes and nose. Guttenberg thanked Cruz for shaking his hand during his handshake fiasco at the Kavanaugh hearing. Milano said she wanted the meeting with Cruz because “I wanted to look at you in the eye, and know that you really are a human with a heartbeat.”

That statement by Milano sums her attitude up perfectly. She views those who do not share her harsh political ideology as not human. How could Ted Cruz possibly have a heartbeat (a heart) if he stands up for private gun ownership?

She repeatedly asked “Isn’t it worth it?” throughout the meeting, which lasted over an hour. I wanted him to politely respond to her that no, it isn’t worth it to waste time trying to get legislation brought to the floor of the Senate that has no chance of passing. Specifically, the three were lobbying Cruz for his support of HB8. The bill requires a background check on every gun sale. It passed in the House on February 27, 2019, and was sent to the Senate.

HR8 requires that loans, gifts, and sales of firearms be processed by a gun store. The same fees, paperwork, and permanent record-keeping apply as to buying a new gun from the store. If you loan a gun to a friend without going to the gun store, the penalty is the same as for knowingly selling a gun to a convicted violent felon. Likewise, when the friend returns the gun, another trip to the gun store is necessary, upon pain of felony.

A clever trick in HR8 effectively bans handguns for persons 18-to20.

The bill has some narrow exemptions. The minuscule exemption for self-defense does not cover stalking victims. None of the exemptions cover farming and ranching, sharing guns on almost all public and private lands, or storing guns with friends while on vacation. The limited exemption for family excludes first cousins and in-laws.

The bill authorizes unlimited fees to be imposed by regulation.

That analysis shows the House bill isn’t one that will be accepted by the Republican majority in the Senate. As an alternative, Cruz talked about the Grassley-Cruz bill on background checks that he, as a freshman senator, brought to a vote in the Senate in 2013. The vote was 52-48, not a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Harry Reid sank that bill. It was reintroduced in May 2019.

While Guttenberg and Jackson went back and forth with Cruz about gun laws, and using places like Chicago as examples, Milano concentrated on emotional arguments. Though she started off by saying she had prepared for the meeting, she told Cruz she awoke that morning in a panic attack. She spoke of living in fear. Along the way, she made an interesting admission – she has two loaded guns in her house for protection. Funny, I’ve never heard her make that admission before Tuesday.

Milano’s concentration on scolding Cruz for his tone on Twitter rang hollow for me since I see her tweets and know her own “tone”. Remember, she got this meeting with Cruz and prefaced it with saying she wanted to livestream it so everyone could hear his “bullshit”. She gets as ugly as anyone else on social media. Do as I say, not as I do.

She arrogantly told Cruz he is smart enough to know his caricature as a conservative Republican. She asked him to “have the courage to lead” as the push is on for gun control legislation. On outright gun confiscation, which all three activists deny is part of any conversation, Cruz pointed out that three Democrats running for the presidential nomination have called for gun confiscation – Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. O’Rourke also calls for a national gun registry which Cruz explained is necessary for gun confiscation. Guttenberg called Cruz’s concerns over gun confiscation a “red herring”. Then Milano admitted the truth – “We don’t want to take all guns from all people. We want to take certain guns from certain people.” Oh. Thanks for the clarification.

Milano doesn’t want to see any more bacon-wrapped AR-15s, she told Cruz. She wants him to “be mindful on social media”, you see. Perhaps she can commit to doing the same. She left the meeting by calling Cruz “gracious”. Apparently she expected a gun rights supporter to be a barbarian. Minds were not changed. Alyssa got her time on camera.

If you are interested, you can watch the livestream feed on Senator Cruz’s Facebook page.

Senator Cruz Meeting with Alyssa Milano

Posted by Senator Ted Cruz on Tuesday, September 10, 2019