After the horrific massacre of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz attended a vigil for the victims.
At the vigil, Cruz was cornered by British journalist Mark Stone from Sky News, who sought to grill the Texas senator about American gun laws.
“There are 19 sets of parents who are never going to get to kiss their child tonight again,” Cruz told Stone.
“Is this the moment to reform gun laws?” the reporter asked.
“You know, it’s easy to go to politics,” Cruz replied.
“But it’s important,” Stone said. “It’s at the heart of the issue.”
“I get that that’s where the media likes to go,” the senator said.
Stone pressed Cruz further, saying the 18-year-old gunman responsible for the slaughter in Uvalde was able to legally purchase two AR-15 rifles.
“If you want to stop violent crime, the proposals the Democrats have? None of them would have stopped this,” the senator said.
“But why does this only happen in your country?” Stone said.
He said that “many people around the world, they cannot fathom, why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?”
“You know, I’m sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful. … You know what? You’ve got your political agenda. God love you,” Cruz responded.
He walked away, but Stone followed, repeatedly saying that gun violence like this is “just an American problem.”
The reporter then went further, saying, “You can’t answer that, can you?”
That’s when Cruz turned around and confronted him.
“Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it’s the freest, most prosperous, safest country on Earth. Stop being a propagandist,” the senator said.
Cruz handled the aggressive interview well and can be applauded for that.
But there are two concerning issues revealed in Stone’s comments: ignorance and heckling.
Stone kept asking, “Why only in America?”
However, it’s not just in the United States that mass shootings happen.
Last August, a gunman in southwest England killed five people, including a young girl, NPR reported.
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