Why does Ted Cruz suddenly sound like a far-left Democrat on guns? | Opinion
Conservative Republicans have been tying themselves in knots for more than a decade to justify what Donald Trump says and does. It catches up with some faster than others.
Monday was Sen. Ted Cruz’s day.
The Texan, discussing Saturday’s fatal shooting of a Minnesota man by a Border Patrol agent, couldn’t bring himself to say that Trump’s perilous method of enforcing immigration laws may have gone too far. The man who was killed, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, was at a protest and was legally carrying a handgun under Minnesota law.
There’s no evidence that Pretti brandished the weapon before he was shot. But Cruz, who has campaigned as a vigorous defender of Second Amendment rights, put the blame at Pretti’s feet: The Minnesotan should have known that violent confrontation with law enforcement was possible and left his weapon at home, according to the second-guessing senator.
“If you have a firearm, the odds of that confrontation escalating rise dramatically. Look, police officers don’t know if you intend to use that firearm to commit harm, to harm others or to harm them,” Cruz said on his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz. “We are seeing, sadly, leftists targeting ICE agents for murder. And if you have that firearm, and you’re engaged in violence, the agent’s perception of the physical threat to them is understandably much, much higher.”
Cruz acknowledged that Pretti does not appear to have had violent crime in his past. In the confrontation that took his life, Pretti seems to have engaged in no violence. At worst, it appears, he erred by stepping in when officers began using pepper spray, perhaps trying to help another person.
Cruz was not alone in criticizing Pretti for carrying his 9 mm handgun. To his credit, he did not go as far as Trump administration scoundrels who said almost immediately that Pretti’s presence with the weapon and two high-capacity magazines proved he meant to do federal agents harm. They’ve provided no backing for that, and they have tainted whatever federal investigation may follow.
No, Cruz did not go so far as to kick the dead man with a jackboot. But he did sound an awful lot like leftists who have opposed the expansion of the right to carry a gun for decades. Close your eyes and you’d swear you’re listening to Texas Democrats who argued against concealed carry, open carry and the right to carry without a government permit.
During the debate a few years ago on permitless carrying, often referred to as “constitutional carry,” anti-gun activists warned of more bloodshed. Police groups argued that officers wouldn’t be able to tell who’s a good guy with a gun and who might mean them or others harm.
Whether he intended to or not, Cruz — who has unblemished candidate ratings from three major gun-rights groups, including the National Rifle Association — endorsed those assertions, which have proved wrong every time.
Skilled lawyer that he is, Cruz would probably point to his specificity about those engaging in activities more likely to include confrontation with police. If Cruz is right, though, Americans must curtail their speech and self-defense rights based on the political climate of the moment. Prudence is a virtue, to be sure. But our freedoms of expression and self-defense are never more important than during the most heated debates.
The Bill of Rights wasn’t put there for the fun times.
It shouldn’t matter which side of a debate you’re on, either. If Pretti left home determined to protest what he perceived as unacceptably aggressive policing or immigration enforcement, that deserves the same protection as any other expression, even those many would consider wrong or even dangerous. Your gun rights don’t come with a political checklist.
The available evidence so far indicates that Pretti did nothing that most of us would interpret as life-threatening. Perhaps the likeliest explanation is that in a tense, foggy situation, an agent confused Pretti’s cellphone for a weapon. It’s happened before.
Then there’s this difficult truth: “The Second Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty.”
That vigorous defense of gun rights came from Ted Cruz himself. And it drew harsh criticism during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Now, he’s suggesting that some Americans should lay down the right he has so solidly supported time and again. Why? Perhaps because he can’t quite bring himself to say that Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement is wrong, misguided or even counterproductive.
As his podcast continued, Cruz did offer some good advice.
“What I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they’re describing this, that immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out [and say], ‘We took out a violent terrorist, hooray,’ ” Cruz said. But “escalating the rhetoric doesn’t help, and it actually loses credibility. And so I would encourage the administration to be more measured.”
When it comes to law-abiding Americans’ gun rights, Ted Cruz should listen to Ted Cruz.
