The Republican senator walked away from an interview when asked if it's time for America to reform its gun laws.
21 people, including 19 children, lost their lives at an American elementary school
earlier this week.
On Tuesday morning, 18-year-old
Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother before taking her car to drive to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas with a rifle.
He subsequently opened fire on classrooms, killing 19 children and two teachers, before he was eventually shot dead by police.
It is the 27th school shooting incident to take place in America in 2022. The fallout has been familiar – images of
devastated family members on news reports, satirical news website
The Onion rolling out its signature 'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens bit no less than 21 times on Wednesday, and US politicians offering the usual thoughts and prayers.
Emotional statements abound – Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr
spoke powerfully, for instance – but so too do extremely questionable ones. Step forward Republican senator Ted Cruz, who has a theory about why this and other recent shooting incidents took place, such as a high school shooting in Santa Fe in May of 2018.
Speaking to reporters at Robb Elementary School on Wednesday, Cruz argued that unlocked doors are to blame.
"Do you want to talk about how we could have prevented the horror that played out across the street?" Cruz began. "Look, the killer entered here the same way the killer entered in Santa Fe – through a back door, an unlocked back door.
"I sat down at roundtables with the families from Santa Fe, we talked about what we need to do to harden schools, including not having unlocked back doors, not having unlocked doors in classrooms, having one door that goes in and out of the school, having armed police officers at that one door."
https://twitter.com/Simone_DeAlba/status/1529592278423052288
In another exchange, Cruz walked off when asked if now was finally time to reform America's approach to gun laws.
"You know, it's easy to go to politics," he began.
"I get that that's where the media likes to go... the proposals from Democrats in the media, inevitably, when some violent psychopath murders people..."
At this point, the Sky News reporter cuts across, noting that an 18-year-old had easy access to high-powered weaponry.
"If you want to stop violent crime, the proposals the Democrats have? None of them would have stopped this," responded Cruz. Asked why incidents of nature happen "only in America", Cruz solemnly shook his head.
"You know, I'm sorry you think that American exceptionalism is awful. You know what, you've got your political agenda, God love you." Following this, Cruz turned away from the reporter and left the scene.
Pressed for further response, Cruz stopped and said: "Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it's the freest, most prosperous, safest country on Earth. And stop being a propagandist."
And that was all.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1529729614309900290?s=20&t=QZrRECOZ9JnDfOC8O851-g
