At #TribFest22, an attendee tells @tedcruz “violence doesn’t solve violence.”
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 24, 2022
Cruz responds: “It actually is the only thing that does.” pic.twitter.com/NqFvVDx9hc
Over the weekend Sen. Ted Cruz found himself defending gun rights at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
In the video embedded above, you can see Cruz responding to a question about the Left’s agenda to widely curtail 2A rights.
Cruz said there are “lots of folks on the left that say, ‘Look, let’s just get rid of all the guns.'”
“What that would mean,” he said, “is 500,000 to a million more people are victims of crime, are victims of rape, of murder, of assault.”
Though he didn’t cite his source, Cruz was no doubt referencing CDC estimates on the number of defensive gun uses that happen each year in the United States.
As the agency famously reported in a 2013 study on the topic, “defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence.”
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Not only is it a “common occurrence” but it happens at least as often as bad guys use guns in the perpetration of crimes. As the authors of the study observed:
Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.
Point is, Cruz is correct. Disarming law-abiding citizens via draconian gun control policies that are universally ignored by violent offenders will indubitably create more defenseless victims.
Yet, some folks in the crowd did not accept this logic.
Someone shouted “AR-15,” as Cruz was talking so the Texas Republican responded by telling the audience about Stephen Willeford, the hero in Southerland Springs, who in 2017 used a modern sporting rifle to take out an active shooter at the town’s First Baptist Church.
“The weapon that Stephen used to stop that was an AR-15,” Cruz said.
That’s when someone else in the crowd interjected, “violence doesn’t solve violence.”
“It actually is the only thing that does,” Cruz responded.
“Violence doesn’t solve violence? That is actually why the left wants to abolish police and why you see murder rates skyrocketing,” he added.
Again, Cruz is correct. Hardened criminals target those who refuse to defend themselves and those who are incapable of defending themselves.
In his book, “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,” Dr. Jordan Peterson explained precisely why this is the case.
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“Naive, harmless people usually guide their perceptions and actions with a few simple axioms: people are basically good; no one really wants to hurt anyone else; the threat (and, certainly, the use) of force, physical or otherwise, is wrong,” Peterson wrote.
“These axioms collapse, or worse, in the presence of individuals who are genuinely malevolent. Worse means that naive beliefs can become a positive invitation to abuse, because those who aim to harm have become specialized to prey on people who think precisely such things,” he continued.
Violence is the answer to violence. Pretending otherwise is to set oneself up for victimhood.
Poor little far left iceman who beats his wife and thinks he tough😘😘🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ted Cruz is the smartest man in congress!!! Ted Cruz and Trump!! Leftwing democrats are the dumbest people in America.. Just like Biden.. SAD Sad sad people.. you have to feel bad for them. They make America the dumbest country.. Wish they would move to China.. 👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
Violence is sometimes the only means of survival. I saw a video of two evil Eastern European young men torture and eventually murder an older man. The man stupidly complied with everything the two younger men said and paid a horrific price for doing so. They eventually blinded the man with sharp objects before murdering him. That is a microcosm of several kinds of people, not just leftists. The idea that criminals will have the same moral compass like you is naive and extremely stupid. Some people expect that a criminal(s) will leave them alone and have mercy on the victim as long as the victim gives them what they want.
Ted Cruz couldn’t defend his wife.
Sadly, when they say get rid of all guns and Ted, or anyone else responds with, that would only bring more victims, they argue, or rather, try to argue, and say, well that isn’t what happened in the UK. It isn’t what happens in Japan, China or anywhere else where they’ve severely restricted or outright banned guns. But what those people don’t see is violence is up, And those where they’re banned entirely is that they’re government has them under the thumb!
YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING, this worthless slimeball? Whats wrong with people that they can’t see the scheming sleazebags for what they are rely on ONE issue to make determinations as to their credibility….speaks to the pathetic state of education in america today, turning out most ignorant, uneducated robots!
WOW! Ted Cruz for President!!
Based on one trivial issue, 2A, you support this worthless POS? You are the typical MAGA myopic idiot….america needs protection from people like you before the Trumpers turn this country into a dictatorship!
Are you just waking up? I voted for Ted Cruz in the 2016 primaries. Trump told some lies about Cruz, even accused Cruz’s father of being involved in the Kennedy assassination. Some idiots believed it and voted for Trump. Big mistake.