On Saturday, the United States witnessed another mass shooting when a gunman opened fire killing seven and injuring 22 people in the Texas cities of Midland and Odessa.
Officials have reported, that the shooter, who was shot on the scene, had lost his job just hours before going on the killing spree. Texas had also reportedly introduced a stream of weaker gun laws just a day before the massacre.
Ted Cruz, who is a senator for Texas has been quiet in response to the shootings. Rather than putting a statement on Twitter he instead got involved in a spat with actress Alyssa Milano over the second amendment.
An excellent Q, worth considering carefully w/o the snark of Twitter. It is of course not the right to a modern-day… https://t.co/17btAG6IiY— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567381992
2/x The right to self-defense is recognized repeatedly in the Bible, eg Exodus 22:2: “If a thief is caught breaking… https://t.co/oeVrL9ebvG— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567382298
3/x The Declaration of Independence acknowledges our rights thusly: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that… https://t.co/vHFTpM5kvP— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567382443
4/x And, for that reason, the Second Amendment provides “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, SHALL NOT b… https://t.co/v8EiLjSxWY— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567382619
5/x Stephen Willeford exercised that fundamental right when he risked his own life to stop the Sutherland Springs m… https://t.co/alYacBQ87T— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567382744
6/x St. George Tucker, one of the most important scholars in early America, explained the reasons behind the Second… https://t.co/LJPloScWFn— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567382917
7/x “...in most govts it has been the study of rulers to confine this right w/in the narrowest limits possible. Whe… https://t.co/PHjmq8pyAr— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567383068
8/x That’s also why, post Civil War, disarming Black Americans was a critical objective of the KKK, and was memoria… https://t.co/9vxab93iq3— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567383565
9/x I’m a Texan. What happened in Midland-Odessa—and El Paso, Santa Fe & Sutherland Springs—was sick, deranged & ho… https://t.co/pSwJ0emeOy— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567383773
10/x Playing politics w/ these deranged crimes—and trying to use them as an excuse to violate the constl rights of… https://t.co/VmbBO5kAGW— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1567384003
Although it wasn't a direct response to the above thread, activist Adam Best unearthed a clip from 2015, when Cruz would have been campaigning for president, where he inexplicably wraps a streak of bacon around a barrel of a gun and fires the weapon in order to cook the piece of meat.
Cruz also eats the bacon after firing the gun and laughs. The clip was made for the Independent Journal Review and Best tagged Cruz in the post to see if the Republican still found it amusing following this weekend's shootings and the shooting in Sutherland Springs in 2017.
In 2015, Ted Cruz cooked bacon by wrapping it around the barrel of an AR-15 and then firing the gun a bunch. He the… https://t.co/y6NuOz2yX4— Adam Best (@Adam Best) 1567371632
The clip has since been picked up by others, with some using it to pose the same question to Cruz or mock the senator.
America in 43 seconds: @tedcruz making bacon 🥓 🔫 https://t.co/tBNGbSjcaP— jason@calacanis.com (@jason@calacanis.com) 1567385782
Hey @TedCruz, still think the bacon's worth it? https://t.co/3sswY0Hww7— Brian Tyler Cohen (@Brian Tyler Cohen) 1567378110
I am shocked and appalled by this, @tedcruz. There is no way that bacon reached a safe internal temperature of 145… https://t.co/uGKurC4q7o— Rep. Tony Lovasco (MO-64) (@Rep. Tony Lovasco (MO-64)) 1567398586