Ted Cruz Heckled By Audience After Announcing Plan To Minimize School Shootings — Without More Gun Control
Senator Ted Cruz found few friends in a Texas crowd while discussing his strategies to minimize school shootings while at the Tribune Festival in Austin on Saturday, September 24.
Cruz criticized gun control, claiming it is unfair to "law-abiding citizens," and proposed a plan to put more police officers in school.
"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," the Texas senator said. "...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 shared his plan to combat school shootings through education, noting that "if you want to stop crime, you target the bad guys." He also stated that not only must criminals be prosecuted and taken off the streets, but vulnerable locations — such as schools — should have amped up security.
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"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," he continued, only to be met with a cacophony of boos and shouts from attendees.
Added Cruz, "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 previously found himself in hot water following the tragic Uvalde elementary school shooting in which police officers failed to act quickly enough when a shooter breached a school, later killing 19 young students and two educators.
The topic was clearly still present in the minds of the Texas crowd, earning Cruz a few pointed jeers from members in the audience.
"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 retorted in response to the boos. "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."
The controversial politician added that the audience was free to "sing kumbaya" with mass shooters and "hope they'll just stop" but warned them that "doesn't work."
However, the crowd wasn't keen on allowing Cruz to get the last word. Someone in the crowd shouted that "18-year-old boys don't need an AR-15," prompting a burst into applause.
Business Insider reported Cruz's Tribune Festival quotes.