Texas embarrassment Ted Cruz is surely no stranger to people vocally hating his ideas. What he may not be as used to is getting booed to his face in his native state.
While explaining his latest piece of short-sighted legislation this week, that’s exactly what the junior senator received.
The dissent came while he spoke at the Texas Tribune Festival about Uvalde and school shootings, a subject he’s been grilled over since the Uvalde massacre back in May. The NRA-funded politician has offered every possible remedy to the school shooting epidemic aside from common sense gun control legislation.
His latest proposal, the Securing Our Schools Act of 2022, aims to direct billions of federal dollars toward more police officers and counselors in schools — missing the mark yet again.
How about we take this to the next level?
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“Two weeks ago, I stood on the Senate floor and tried to pass legislation I’ve introduced that would double the number of police officers in schools,” Cruz tells the audience.
Cue a cacophony of hard-earned boos from the crowd.
Related: The White House reads Ted Cruz to filth
This reaction isn’t a baseless one; reports have found time and time again that the millions upon millions being poured into school security measures have had little effect on school shooting numbers, including school resource officers (SROs).
This has been explored even more extensively in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, which had nearly 400 officers on the scene before the gunman was stopped.
Meanwhile, increased SRO presence has been linked to increase juvenile arrest rates, as well as general higher student fatality counts in their schools.
Related: Ted Cruz cracks transphobic joke about Elizabeth Warren and Twitter promptly tells him to STFU
At this point, Cruz has a history of ineffective advice on school shooting reduction. Immediately following the tragedy in Uvalde, he took to blaming the school’s structure, stating that it never would’ve happened if the building had only one entrance.
The push to introduce greater law enforcement in schools mirrors the right’s earlier push to arm teachers (and put the onus of getting gun training on them). Top to bottom, people like Cruz seem invested in making sure there are as many guns in schools as possible.
This irony of these proposals happening concurrently with the push to brand queer people as “unsafe” for children isn’t lost on anyone but those pushing it, either.
Folks on the right have been taking aim at everything from drag entertainers to LGBTQ+ books in their “think of the children” crusade that somehow doesn’t include taking their NRA-funded political faves to task.
Watch Ted get torn up by the Texas Tribune crowd here:
.@tedcruz says one of the most effective ways to prevent mass shootings is to “enhance security at vulnerable targets” and add more police in schools.
But experts say more law enforcement on campuses doesn’t necessarily make schools safer. https://t.co/HYwikriccm #TribFest22 pic.twitter.com/Y4VWyh0M3q
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 24, 2022
Jim
Texas Gov. Abbott attended a political fundraiser hours after the Uvalde massacre. That’s how much he cared about the victims of school shootings.
Fahd
Blah Blah Blah….
I do not like that Senator Cruz
I do not like his far right views
I do not like his stupid chin
I do not like his smarmy grin
I do not like him with a beard
I do not like him freshly sheared
I do not like what he just said
I do not like his boxy head
I do not like him wearing glasses
I do not like him greeting kids in classes
I do not like his stupid suits
I do not like his cowboy boots
I do not like him when he sneezes
I do not like him eating cheeses
I do not like him in the leaves
I do not like him when he feeds
I do not like him by a wall
I do not like his tattoo at all
I do not like him in a room
I do not like him in Cancun
I do not like him playing ball
I do not like his face at all
From John Oliver
still_onthemark
The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is 400 good guys with guns cowering in fear and crapping their pants in the hallway. Ted says no, make that 800 good guys cowering in fear and crapping their pants in the hallway.
seven5tx
Teddi the Tool. You expect to much of him.
ZzBomb
History will not be kind to these people.
johncp56
He is a male C!@#$%^&^%$#@T!!!
bachy
What kind of American votes for someone like this? I imagine a recluse in a self-made bomb shelter, surrounded by canned goods, cowering and clutching an assault rifle as they await the apocalypse (which someone has predicted will occur every year since the 1st century AD).
Kangol2
A majority of Texas voters, apparently. He shows himself to be a horrible phony every time he opens his mouth, yet he keeps winning elections. I don’t even like to look at this fake creep, who is about as insincere and hollow as politicians can be, but apparently there are enough people in Texas who feel they have to keep sending him to Washington, DC as their Senatorial representative. Maybe some day soon they’ll wake up, though I wouldn’t take bets on it.
abfab
TED JUMP! MTG IS NOW ON THE MARKET!