Scarborough and Ted Cruz Hold Explosive, Marathon Gun Control Debate: ‘I Don’t Need You to Lecture Me’
Sen. Ted Cruz appeared on Morning Joe Wednesday — the morning after his resounding victory in his the Texas Republican primary — and engaged in an explosive debate on gun control with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle kicked things off by asking Cruz if he thought it made sense that in some states an 18-year-old can buy an assault rifle but not a handgun.
“Different states have different laws,” Cruz replied, before arguing that the assault weapons ban of yesteryear actually “had no effect on violent crime.”
Cruz continued to argue that while the AR-15 may look “scary” it’s not actually more dangerous than other common deer hunting guns.
Scarborough contended that guns like the AR-15 are “lighter” and “more lethal.”
“It is designed to kill more effectively, more efficiently,” he argued before asking Cruz that “if somebody takes a deer rifle into a high school in Parkland, that deer rifle is going to be as lethal as an AR-15?”
Things started to get contentious when the conversation moved on to Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment, and Scarborough told Cruz, “Senator, there are a lot of people, lawyers right now, who are rolling their eyes at what you’re saying.”
“My career was litigating before the Supreme Court,” Cruz said. “I recognize this is not what you do.”
“I don’t need you to lecture me on what the Supreme Court does and what it doesn’t do,” Scarborough fired back. “You can talk down to me all you want to.”
“Who’s talking down to who?” Cruz asked. “You say lawyers are rolling their eyes at me.”
“Even a dumb country lawyer like me understands that an AR-15 today, is not recognized as a constitutional right under the Second Amendment.”
The two continued to debate the Heller Supreme Court ruling in 2008, which determined there is an individual constitutional right to have a handgun in one’s home for self-protection.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[image via screengrab]
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