Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took actress and liberal activist Alyssa Milano to task over her faith-based question about the Bible and the Second Amendment.
On Sunday, Milano responded to Republican Texas state Rep. Matt Schaefer's tweet 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. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent" following a shooting rampage in Odessa that killed seven and injured at least 22.
"Can someone cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun?" Milano asked in a tweet, accusing the Texas politician of being "unbelievable and clearly owned by the gun lobby."
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 twitter.com/repmattschaefe…
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Cruz responded, telling the anti-gun activist, it was an "excellent" question, "worth considering [without] the snark of Twitter," before citing a few examples from the Bible.
"It is of course not the right to a modern-day firearm that is God-give [sic] 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 Texas conservative began.
"The right to self-defense is recognized repeatedly in the Bible," Cruz wrote, for example, "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 twitter.com/alyssa_milano/…
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).
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Pointing to the "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" within the Declaration of Independence, Cruz says it is "for that reason, the Second Amendment provides 'the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, SHALL NOT be infringed.'"
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.”
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.
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He says it wasn't put in place to protect hunting or target practice but "to defend their lives, their homes & their families," citing Stephen Willeford who helped stop the shooter in the 2017 Sutherland Springs church massacre.
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.
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....”
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Cruz, in his 10-tweet reply, added that "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."
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.”
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.
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He says he's leading the fight in the Senate "to do MUCH more to stop violent criminals & those w/ dangerous mental illness BEFORE they murder."
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.
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.
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"Playing politics w/ these deranged crimes—and trying to use them as an excuse to violate the constl [sic] rights of law-abiding citizens—won’t make anybody safer," Cruz concluded. "Forcible gun confiscation (as some 2020 Dems urge) won’t prevent mass-murders. But it would weaken our self-defense."
Milano responded early Monday morning, saying she'd "love to come in and meet" Cruz when she is in Washington, D.C. next week.
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. twitter.com/tedcruz/status…
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"We can live-stream the meeting so the American people can hear your bullsh*t 1st hand," she said, adding she'd like to talk about 1 Peter 4:8, which says: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."
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