In the wake of several deadly shootings across the nation, including in his home state of Texas, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz claimed numerous mass murderers are “raised with absent fathers.”
Cruz spoke at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston over the weekend. His speech condemned the recent wave of mass shootings, including the killing of 10 people in Buffalo, New York, last month, along with the recent elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two adults were killed.
During his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, on Thursday, the Republican senator recounted his speech, in which he blamed “broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying,” and other factors for altering the “psyche of young Americans.”
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“It was interesting seeing some of the reactions of the left, because it’s almost pathological where they come back and attack me and said, ‘Well, Cruz is attacking single moms.’ No, I’m not. I’m saying that kids do better with dads,” Cruz said Thursday. Cruz added that he has single-parent homes in his family and that single mothers are “heroic and extraordinary people.”
The suspected shooter in Uvalde was 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who had been living with his grandparents after a falling out with his mother. Cruz’s comments come less than 24 hours after a 45-year-old man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killed four people and injured 10 at a medical facility Wednesday before killing himself.
The House Judiciary Committee held an emergency hearing on Thursday to consider several gun control bills, including a measure to increase the legal purchasing age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.
During the hearing, numerous Democrats bashed Republican talking points that highlight “mental health” as a cause for mass shootings and GOP lawmakers who praise “good guys with guns.”
“Texas is filled with ‘good guys with guns,’ but that couldn’t save the lives of those 19 children and two teachers. It’s time to try something new … [Republicans] told us that armed officers in schools would solve the problem. Each time, they’ve been proven wrong,” said committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) on Thursday.
Cruz also cited statistics on his podcast showing the same percentage of U.S. residents own firearms today as they did 50 years ago.
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“The per capita rate of gun ownership in 1972 was 43% in America. The per capita rate of gun ownership in 2021, 49 years later, is 42%,” Cruz said, citing statistics reflected in a Gallup poll on the matter.
“You had the exact same percentage of Americans owning firearms. What’s changed is the culture,” Cruz added.
