There is nothing more exciting than watching an intelligent, well-informed person completely dismantle the argument of someone who is not debating in good faith. Texas Senator Ted Cruz does that more than almost any other elected official, and it never gets old.
This time, his target was actress and “activist” Alyssa Milano, who has once again taken issue with the Second Amendment. She ran to Twitter to argue the Biblical validity of the right to bear arms in the wake of a mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, that killed seven and left nearly two dozen others wounded.
Representative Matt Schaefer tweeted that he was “NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period.” This prompted a snarky return from Milano, who asked which Bible verse corroborated his assertion that owning a gun is a “God-given right.”
Can someone cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun? This guy is unbelievable and is clearly owned by the gun lobby. #NoRA https://t.co/PxVV1RoV2Z
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 1, 2019
As though he’d been summoned by some sort of Constitutional bat-signal, Ted Cruz jumped at the opportunity to answer her ill-intentioned question, and educate people in the process.
“An excellent Q, worth considering carefully w/o the snark of Twitter,” he began in his thread. “It is of course not the right to a modern-day firearm that is God-give but rather the right to Life & the right to Liberty. Essential to that right to life is the right to DEFEND your life & your family. The right to self-defense is recognized repeatedly in the Bible, eg Exodus 22:2: “If a thief is caught breaking in at night & is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed.” (Note, though, verse 3 says it IS murder if during daylight (ie, not self-defense).”
An excellent Q, worth considering carefully w/o the snark of Twitter. It is of course not the right to a modern-day firearm that is God-give but rather the right to Life & the right to Liberty. Essential to that right to life is the right to DEFEND your life & your family. 1/x https://t.co/8pjstMGrGB
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 1, 2019
2/x The right to self-defense is recognized repeatedly in the Bible, eg Exodus 22:2: “If a thief is caught breaking in at night & is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed.” (Note, though, verse 3 says it IS murder if during daylight (ie, not self-defense).
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 1, 2019
“The Declaration of Independence acknowledges our rights thusly: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,'” the senator continued. “And, for that reason, the Second Amendment provides “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, SHALL NOT be infringed.” It wasn’t to protect people’s ability to hunt, or to shoot target practice, but to defend their lives, their homes & their families.”
3/x The Declaration of Independence acknowledges our rights thusly: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
4/x And, for that reason, the Second Amendment provides “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, SHALL NOT be infringed.” It wasn’t to protect people’s ability to hunt, or to shoot target practice, but to defend their lives, their homes & their families.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
“Stephen Willeford exercised that fundamental right when he risked his own life to stop the Sutherland Springs murderer, saving countless others as a result,” Cruz reminded Milano. “St. George Tucker, one of the most important scholars in early America, explained the reasons behind the Second Amendment as follows: ‘This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. . . . The right of self defence is the first law of nature….'”
5/x Stephen Willeford exercised that fundamental right when he risked his own life to stop the Sutherland Springs murderer, saving countless others as a result.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
6/x St. George Tucker, one of the most important scholars in early America, explained the reasons behind the Second Amendment as follows: “This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. . . . The right of self defence is the first law of nature….”
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
7/x “…in most govts it has been the study of rulers to confine this right w/in the narrowest limits possible. Wherever…the right…to keep & bear arms is, under any…pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
8/x That’s also why, post Civil War, disarming Black Americans was a critical objective of the KKK, and was memorialized in countless Jim Crow laws—to strip African-Americans of their God-given right to self-defense from violence.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
9/x I’m a Texan. What happened in Midland-Odessa—and El Paso, Santa Fe & Sutherland Springs—was sick, deranged & horrifying. We need to do MUCH more to stop violent criminals & those w/ dangerous mental illness BEFORE they murder & I’m leading the fight in the Senate to do so.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
10/x Playing politics w/ these deranged crimes—and trying to use them as an excuse to violate the constl rights of law-abiding citizens—won’t make anybody safer. Forcible gun confiscation (as some 2020 Dems urge) won’t prevent mass-murders. But it would weaken our self-defense.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 2, 2019
Milano’s response? Offering to debate Cruz on gun control and calling his eloquent, Constitutionally-grounded answer “bulls**t.”
I’d love to come in and meet with you on the gun issue and many other issues that include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, @tedcruz and also, 1 Peter 4:8.
I’ll be in DC next week. We can live-stream the meeting so the American people can hear your bullshit 1st hand. https://t.co/S3ljfjjOtG
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 2, 2019
Should we have expected anything else?
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