Activist Confronts Ted Cruz On Gun Control After NRA Convention Speech

This is a new low even for a coward like Sen. Ted Cruz.

Source: Brandon Bell / Getty

In the wake of the heartbreaking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, he wasted no time blaming the preventable gun violence on everything but guns. If that wasn’t cowardly enough, Cruz gave a speech at a massive NRA (National Rifle Association) convention held just a few days later in Houston. Huff Post reports activist Benjamin Hernandez confronted the sniveling senator for a speech blaming absent fathers, video games, and social media for mass shootings across the U.S.

https://twitter.com/indivisibleHOU/status/1530406915716435968

The exchange started innocently with Hernandez approaching to ask for a photo-op at a sushi restaurant on Friday night. Instead of snapping a photo, the camera was rolling as he then questioned Cruz about his refusal to support gun control policies. “You know, I would encourage you ― I gave about a half-hour speech today at the NRA convention ― I encourage you to watch it,” Cruz said, deflecting from the topic.

“You’re directing me to your 30-minute speech, and you just can’t answer a simple question? Background checks, can’t we start there? Background checks ― is that so hard?” Hernandez asked.

He pleaded for solutions as a father of young children like the 19 Robb Elementary School students fatally shot last week. Once again, Cruz deflected by vaguely referencing Democrat’s policies and saying they would not have stopped the massacre. Even Biden’s tone-deaf promises to “fund the police” mean nothing after cops left the shooter inside with victims for more than an hour before confronting him.

Which shooter are we talking about, Ted? Between the tragedies in Buffalo and Uvalde, there were 15 other mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Cruz’s excuses defy even the most remedial logic because, like hundreds of other domestic terrorists, the Uvalde shooter legally purchased the high-capacity weapons and ammunition.

“You can make it harder for people to get guns in this country. You know that. But you stand here, you stand at the NRA convention ― it is harder, it is harder when there are more guns to stop gun violence,” Hernandez said as security began to separate them.

“Why does this keep happening? Why did you come here to this convention to take blood money when 19 children died?” he shouted as more security dragged him to the door. “Nineteen children died! That’s on your hands, Ted Cruz!”

Hernandez is a board member of Indivisible Houston, the progressive activist group that posted the 2-minute video of the exchange on Twitter. Hernandez says he hopes to set an example through the confrontation as much as in his other activism.

“The time for civil discourse and debate ― when they allow it, which they don’t ― that’s over, to me. It is uncomfortable. Yes, it was uncomfortable for me to go and do that ― that’s not me,” he told Huff Post.

“My mom was even surprised that I dropped the F-bomb. But this week has had me dropping F-bombs, because I’m just so incensed that they would stand there and not do anything about it.”

Another video of the confrontation went viral, racking up more than 10 million views and counting. Both the argument and organizing Hernandez does in Houston proves that voting isn’t the only way we need to make our voices heard. The calls for politeness and civility mean nothing when leaders refuse to protect elders in grocery stores and children in schools. Is there anything less civilized than that?