In response to actress-turned-activist Alyssa Milano scoffing at the concept that the right to defend oneself with a firearm is “God-given,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) offered the actress a biblical, constitutional, and historical lesson over the weekend. Clearly not appreciative of the senator’s effort to educate her, Milano dropped a quick biblical reference herself then challenged Cruz to meet with her in person and “live-stream the meeting so the American people can hear your bullsh** 1st hand.” Cruz, a former debate champion, happily accepted the challenge.
“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, [Sen. Ted Cruz] and also, 1 Peter 4:8,” Milano wrote Sunday after Cruz responded to her tweet mocking a Republican congressman for saying that self-defense with a gun is a “God-given” right. She continued, “I’ll be in DC next week. We can live-stream the meeting so the American people can hear your bullsh** 1st hand.”
1 Peter 4:8 states, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Cruz, winner of both the U.S. National Debating Championship and the North American Debating Championship, gladly accepted Milano’s “bullsh**” challenge.
“I’d be happy to sit down & visit next week about uniting to stop gun violence & about the Constitution,” Cruz replied. “If we can have a civil & positive conversation—in the spirit of 1 Peter 4:8 as you suggest—despite our political differences, that might help resolve the discord in our Nation.”
The public feud between Milano and Cruz began when the actress posted a mocking response to Republican Rep. Matt Schaeffer referencing people’s “God-given rights.” “I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period,” Schaeffer tweeted Saturday. “None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent.”
“Can someone cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun?” Milano responded. “This guy is unbelievable and is clearly owned by the gun lobby.”
In his trademark style, Cruz replied to the actress’s scoffing tweet with a cordial and thorough response.
“An excellent Q, worth considering carefully w/o the snark of Twitter,” Cruz wrote in a series of tweets. “It is of course not the right to a modern-day firearm that is God-give[n] 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 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).”
Cruz then turned to our foundational documents: “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.’ 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.”
Cruz then cited an example of an American using his God-given right to self-defense to save others’ lives: “Stephen Willeford exercised that fundamental right when he risked his own life to stop the Sutherland Springs murderer, saving countless others as a result.”
The senator then got a little more scholarly: “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 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.'”
Cruz also cited some key examples from American history underscoring the importance of self-defense through firearms: “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.”
“I’m a Texan. What happened in Midland-Odessa—and El Paso, Santa Fe & Sutherland Springs—was sick, deranged & horrifying,” Cruz concluded. “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.”
H/T Twitchy
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