Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has issued a Twitter rebuttal to Alyssa Milano after the actress questioned those who claim a “God-given” right to bear arms.
“Can someone cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun?” Milano asked, following news of yet another mass shooting in the state of Texas.
On Saturday, a 36-year-old man killed seven people after firing indiscriminately as he drove through the Texan town of Odessa in a hijacked US Postal Service vehicle. Those fatally shot were aged between 15 and 57-years-old, with a 17-month-old girl receiving injuries after being shot in the face.
Among those injured in the shooting was Anderson David, who suffered shrapnel wounds to her right chest and has a hole through her bottom lip and tongue—she is currently being treated in hospital. Her parents told reporters they are thankful to have God by their side at this horrific time.
“We praise God for walking beside us during this time and our prayers go out to all of the families that are walking this same walk,” they said in a statement, according to MSNBC. “We hurt so badly for the families whose loved ones didn’t survive this tragedy.”
The atrocity has prompted more calls for gun control reform. Among those is actress Alyssa Milano, who raised an intriguing question on Twitter about “God-given” rights. Never one to shy away from dialogue, Ted Cruz answered Milano with a thoughtful and thorough thread.
Far there being a Biblical mandate to a “modern-day firearm,” Cruz asserted that the God-given aspect relates to “the right to Life & the right to Liberty.”
“The right to self-defense is recognized repeatedly in the Bible,” he added, “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 went on to highlight the heroics of Stephen Willeford, the Texan man who opened fire on the shooter in the Sutherland Springs massacre, likely saving several lives.
In conclusion, Cruz noted that “playing politics with these deranged crimes—and trying to use them as an excuse to violate the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens—won’t make anybody safer.”
“Forcible gun confiscation (as some 2020 Dems urge) won’t prevent mass-murders,” he said, “But it would weaken our self-defense.”