WASHINGTON \u2014 Democrats angling for Sen. Ted Cruz\u2019s job largely agree that when it comes to gun violence, solutions start with getting him out of office.<\/p>\n
He \u201cseems to think there\u2019s nothing that we can do to save lives, and that there\u2019s no steps necessary or that we can even consider that can help us prevent public places from becoming the next memorial,\u201d said Dallas congressman Colin Allred. \u201cI just refuse to accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A leading rival, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, whose district includes Uvalde, spent weeks there consoling parents after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, then months trying in vain to turn their anguish into legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The shooting changed him, he\u2019s said. He\u2019s not singularly focused on gun violence but he does come off as a crusader.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen children stacked in piles with teachers on top of them. Those images will never be erased from my mind,\u201d he said earlier this year<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m not going to stop, ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Most Texans worry about gun violence and school safety. Cruz\u2019s challengers see the issue as a vulnerability, though solutions that sell in the primary tend to alienate voters from the other party.<\/p>\n Long before the March primary, Cruz began stoking concerns among gun owners about the challengers. These \u201caren\u2019t your grandpa\u2019s liberals,\u201d he wrote in a recent email appeal, warning they \u201csupport radical gun control laws.\u2026 They\u2019re hard leftists who want to DESTROY our Texas values.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas Democrats often downplay gun control in statewide contests. Gutierrez leans into it, animated by <\/a>the pain of Uvalde<\/a> \u2014 and invoking it to assert the high ground.<\/p>\n He was having lunch in Austin when he got a call. The magnitude of the tragedy wasn\u2019t yet clear. He scrapped an afternoon fund-raiser and headed to Uvalde and spent 16 straight days there sharing his constituents\u2019 grief, commuting 70 miles each way.<\/p>\n His anger over the botched police response remains raw, along with his frustration that it\u2019s still legal for 18-year-olds to buy an AR-15 style semi-automatic weapon as the Uvalde killer had, days before the shooting.<\/p>\n Raising the age is a <\/a>top priority for Uvalde parents<\/a> and for Gutierrez. Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans stymied it, instead <\/a>mandating armed security officers at every public school<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be 21<\/a> to buy a handgun, but you can be 18 years old and walk into a gun shop like this young man did\u201d and buy an AR-15, Gutierrez said. \u201cLike it was a 7-Eleven buying a Slurpee.\u201d<\/p>\n Allred lauds Gutierrez for stepping up after Uvalde, which hit home for him in a different way: \u201cJust the looks in the parents\u2019 eyes as we were dropping off our little ones [at daycare], wondering if our kids\u2019 school was going to be the next site for one of these unspeakable tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n They and other Democrats in the growing primary field support background checks for anyone who buys a gun, no matter who sells it.<\/p>\n Both want a minimum age of 21 to buy a semi-automatic; Gutierrez\u2019s fallback, which also failed in Austin, was to impose a waiting period for buyers 18 to 21.<\/p>\n Both want to expand the use of \u201cred flag\u201d laws, which let judges issue an extreme risk protection order to take guns away from people deemed dangerous. Some states have such laws. Texas does not.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a broad consensus\u201d on those measures, Allred said, citing surveys showing support north of 75% for each.<\/p>\n Cruz rejects such proposals<\/a>, as he did after <\/a>a gunman killed 8 people at the Allen outlet mall<\/a> in May with an AR-15 style rifle and seven other guns he\u2019d bought legally.<\/p>\n \u201cInevitably, when there\u2019s a murder of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it,\u201d Cruz said after Uvalde. For Democrats, he added, the \u201cimmediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n After Uvalde, Cruz proposed doubling the number of armed officers at schools,<\/a> and adding funds for school security and mental health counselors. A separate proposal<\/a> would have let schools tap unspent COVID-19 relief funds for security upgrades.<\/p>\n \u201cDisappointingly, Democrats have repeatedly blocked those efforts,\u201d said Cruz spokesman Darin Miller. \u201cDisarming law-abiding citizens does nothing more than leave people vulnerable to criminals\u2026. Rather than stripping the rights of good Americans, we should target criminals, felons, fugitives, and other dangerous people.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruz, a top recipient of NRA donations, made a mark on gun policy early in his first term soon.<\/p>\n A gunman killed 20 children at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school soon after he won the seat in 2012. Democrats tried to harness the outcry, pushing bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.<\/p>\n Cruz was instrumental in derailing that.<\/a> <\/p>\n With Sen. Chuck Grassley<\/a>, R-Iowa, he pushed for an alternative approach that he argued would make kids safer without eroding Second Amendment rights: targeting for prosecution fugitives and felons who illegally tried to buy guns. Nine Democrats supported the amendment. But the 52-48 vote fell far short of the 60-vote threshold required. Cruz and other Republicans used the same filibuster tool<\/a> to block a number of Democratic proposals.<\/p>\n The death toll from mass shootings has only grown.<\/p>\n In November 2017, <\/a>a gunman killed 26 people during a Sunday service at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs<\/a>. The worst shooting in Texas history could have been even worse, if a neighbor hadn\u2019t grabbed his AR-15 and interrupted the carnage \u2014 heroism Cruz and others say <\/a>shows the value of arming law-abiding citizens<\/a>.<\/p>\n A 17-year-old student killed 10 at Santa Fe High School the following year. In August 2019 a gunman killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart. Uvalde in May 2022. Allen in May 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a false dichotomy\u2026 that we either can do nothing at all to prevent gun violence, or that we\u2019re going to go and take everybody\u2019s guns away,\u201d Allred said.<\/p>\n Thirteen Democrats have filed for Cruz\u2019s seat so far. Most have never held office, have no website or staff, and have raised little money.<\/p>\n State Rep. Carl Sherman of DeSoto, who joined the field this month, did not respond to email and text messages seeking details of his views on guns. After Uvalde, he called out politicians who offer \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d and \u201cgive more respect and deference to the Second Amendment than we do to second graders.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Gonzalez, the Nueces County district attorney in Corpus Christi until he launched his Senate bid this month, wants licenses to carry a gun. Texas lifted that requirement two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cOpen carry does not move us in a safer direction, nor do laughable solutions like arming teachers with guns,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cGetting weapons off the streets and away from criminals should be a policy goal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTexans are inseparable with a gun culture\u201d and \u201cno one is taking my AR or any of my other guns,\u201d he said. But \u201cresponsible people know we have a problem with guns.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruz\u2019s opponent in 2018 tried to strike a middle ground on guns.ublish<\/p>\n Beto O\u2019Rourke insisted there\u2019s plenty of room for steps to curb gun violence while assuring Texans that he honors the state\u2019s traditions of gun ownership for hunting and self-defense.<\/p>\n But the former El Paso congressman\u2019s later vow \u2014 <\/a>\u201cHell yes, we\u2019re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,\u201d<\/a> uttered during his run for president after the Walmart massacre \u2014 hangs over the 2024 Senate race.<\/p>\n The stance haunted O\u2019Rourke when he challenged Gov. Greg Abbott last year<\/a>. And it has haunted Texas Democrats generally, feeding suspicions they\u2019re gun-grabbers despite the denials.<\/p>\n Gutierrez and Allred are careful to distance themselves from any talk of confiscation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not here to take anyone\u2019s guns away,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cI\u2019m here to hopefully try to prevent what happened in that school from ever happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n Allred also rules out confiscation.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s part of the American tradition to take things away,\u201d he said. He also noted that political resistance and constitutional obstacles make confiscation unrealistic, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s part of the conversation right now.\u201d<\/p>\n By age 16, Allred \u2014 a future NFL player and civil rights lawyer \u2014 had lost three friends in Dallas to gun violence.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day when I went to school\u201d at Hillcrest High School \u201cwe had to walk through the metal detector and get our bags checked for guns,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve grown up with and understand the toll of. And that\u2019s part of why I\u2019ve tried to make it a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n Among his goals is a focus on \u201csafe storage,\u201d encouraging the use of technology that makes a gun unusable by anyone but the owner.<\/p>\n \u201cAs somebody who has two young boys who want to go visit friends\u2019 houses, that\u2019s something my wife and I certainly think about a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He owns no guns. He\u2019s not a hunter. He recalled shooting a .22 at summer camp, and being around guns during visits to his grandmother in Brownsville.<\/p>\n Gutierrez is a lifelong gun owner, bona fides that could tamp down blowback over his passion for restrictions.<\/p>\n He and his wife each have a .38 pistol.<\/p>\n He also has a 9 mm, a .357, a Browning 20 gauge over and under shotgun, a Browning .270 rifle, and a gun called the Judge<\/a>. That\u2019s a revolver that fires .45 caliber bullets and a .410 shot shell<\/a>; it\u2019s marketed as a defense against carjackers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a mean gun,\u201d Gutierrez said, explaining he \u201cstocked up\u201d a few years ago when authorities heard drug cartels were targeting state officials. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 2020 after a stint in the House and before that, the San Antonio city council.<\/p>\n There are no semi-automatics.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need one. Most people in Texas don\u2019t need one,\u201d he said, poking at Cruz over a memorable video he\u2019d taped at an Iowa gun range while running for president in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bacon strips are wrapped around an AR-15 muzzle. Cruz shoots at a target, peels off a crispy hunk and takes a bite.<\/p>\n \u201cMmmm,\u201d he says. \u201cMachine gun bacon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am an absolute believer in the Second Amendment,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cI\u2019ve hunted all my life. I don\u2019t need to get on some video with an AR-15.\u201d<\/p>\n President Joe <\/a>Biden has called repeatedly for resurrecting a ban on sales of semi-automatic weapons<\/a> like AK-47s and AR-15s.<\/p>\n Cruz vehemently opposes such a ban, arguing it made no dent in violent crime.<\/p>\n Said Allred: \u201cI support halting the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We\u2019ve seen those used over and over again in these mass shootings,\u201d including in Allen.<\/p>\n But he won\u2019t push for that, he said \u2014 or any other measure that lacks consensus.<\/p>\n \u201cI spend my time focusing on building on what we did in the last Congress,\u201d he said, referring to the Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun law in 30 years.<\/p>\n Sen. John Cornyn was the main Republican negotiator.<\/p>\n\u2018False dichotomy\u2019<\/h3>\n
Haunted by \u2018hell, yes\u2019<\/h3>\n
\u2018The Judge\u2019<\/h3>\n
No consensus<\/h3>\n