Ted Cruz took to a campaign event today to explain his concerns with the Charleston shooting - and they are grave and serious. You see, the Charleston shooting is just a doorway for the government to invade your homes and come after guns contends Sen. Cruz.
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"It’s sad to see the Democrats take a horrific crime and try to use it as an excuse not to go after people with serious mental illness or people who are repeat felons or criminals but rather try to use it as an excuse to take away the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens," Cruz told reporters after a town hall event here.
"Those are altogether different issues and we need to focus on protecting our Bill of Rights and also on keeping everyone safe."
During the town hall event Cruz defended Second Amendment rights and used a quip he tailors for the states he is visiting on campaign trail: "The great thing about the state of Iowa is pretty sure y'all define gun control the same way we do in Texas: hitting what you aim at."
Cruz is scheduled to attend a "celebrate the Second Amendment" event in Iowa Saturday.
Ted Cruz spoke in Red Oak, Iowa telling audiences that Democrats, and others would use the shooting in Charleston to take away gun rights - and that they should be wary. He offered his solution: let's "go after" the mentally ill and those who are felons indiscriminately. There are certain flaws with this logic.
Issues of mental illness, which our culture struggles with handling, continue to create problems for those who don't understand or aren't touched by those with mental illness and/or disabilities. Those who battle depression, mood disorders, autism, bipolar, schizophrenia, and other maladies often seek treatment or are led to treatment by those around them, and great success can be found in many households.
The social stigma that surrounds mental illness is fairly severe, often undeserved. Ted Cruz, however, seemingly can't stop from making the link, informing his crowd that we should "go after" the mentally ill.
But how, exactly, would this have solved the problem in Charleston? Ted Cruz provides no answers - largely because there are none, and any answer that would involve a government so invasive that it would follow up on all individuals care would scare the daylights out of most small-government Republicans.
Conspiracy theories, such as these preferred by Ted Cruz, are reliant on bad guys, and Ted Cruz has to have many of them. There are Democrats who want to regulate guns, he says. Mentally ill people we haven't gone after. Repeat felons and criminals.
None of these are the case in Charleston. While he was out on bond on a petty drug charge, his prior brushes with the law involved a trespassing charge.
Tighter controls on those with non-violent criminal records seem unlikely to match Ted Cruz view of gun control.
However, his attack on those with mental illnesses gives him a chance to advocate for more funds and resources for programs to help those with mental illness and disabilities. NAMI reports that the house and senate are both working on bills to provide more funding and research to mental illness and disabilities, as well as clinic resources. We will have to see if Ted Cruz will support this effort.
In the meantime, someone might need to point out to Ted Cruz that his repeated use of conspiracy theories and paranoia mean he himself may be teetering on paranoia, a mental illness which can cause individuals to be paranoid about others always out to get them or those around them.
People with mental disabilities are not at fault, and a government that "goes after" them is a real conspiracy. I don't think anyone in this country, right or left, really wants.