“And it is an evil that has happened too many damn times.” “The entire state ― the entire country ― is horrified and grieving,” Cruz said of the Uvalde shooting. The senator went ahead with his planned speech to the NRA despite the school shooting in Uvalde, carried out by a gunman who used an AR-15-style rifle purchased legally days after his 18th birthday. chronic isolation, prescription drug and opioid abuse.” But it’s never been about guns,” Cruz said, after listing some possible other culprits, such as “broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying, violent online content. “It’s a lot easier to moralize about guns and to shriek about those you disagree with politically.

Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston on Friday ― three days after a gunman killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers in his state ― to argue that guns were not to blame for the latest mass shooting.