Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, made these comments after a number of people were killed in shootings across the country, including in his home state of Texas.
He commented many mass murderers were “raised with absent fathers.”
Recent Incidents
Cruz gave a speech over the weekend at the National Rifle Association convention held in Houston.
His address denounced the recent spate of mass shootings, which included the slaughter of ten people in Buffalo, New York during the previous month, as well as the recent atrocity at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
19 kids and two adults were slaughtered.
I discuss the loss of faith, absent fathers, and the nature of evil on the latest episode of #Verdict with @michaeljknowles.
More on YouTube:https://t.co/PsOjyqI1T7 pic.twitter.com/LF9TghpEoF
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 2, 2022
On Thursday’s episode of his podcast, “The Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the senator recalled his speech.
He faulted dysfunctional families, deadbeat dads, deteriorating church attendance, social media harassment, and other variables for altering the “psyche of young Americans.”
Cruz went on to say some of the households in his family are headed by a single parent and he thinks single mothers are amazing and courageous people.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas blames string of mass shootings on 'absent fathers' https://t.co/fRJPeeq3S4 Cruz is ABSOLUTELY Right! The men who generally fail as the Spiritual leader in the home is generally across the board!She looks to him for leadership and he wants a servant!
— William Harl (@william_harl) June 2, 2022
Salvador Ramos, age 18, is being investigated as a suspect in the shooting that took place in Uvalde. After a dispute with his mother, Ramos was residing with his grandparents.
These remarks were made by Cruz a little less than 24 hours after a guy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was 45 years old, killed four people and wounded ten others at a medical facility on Wednesday before turning the gun on himself.
Society Has Changed
On Thursday, the Judiciary Committee held an urgent hearing to take into account several gun control measures.
One of the bills under consideration was a proposal to raise the lawful buying age for semi-automatic firearms from 18 to 21 years of age.
Several Democrats spoke up during the meeting to criticize Republican talking points and lawmakers who praise “good folks with weapons.”
These talking points emphasize “mental health” as a potential cause of mass shootings.
“They have been shown to be incorrect on each and every occasion,” Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic Chairman of the Committee from New York, said on Thursday.
During his podcast, Cruz also presented some relevant statistics. The statistic wound up indicating that the same number of people living in the United States own firearms now as they did fifty years ago.
“In 1972, the ownership percentage of firearms in the United States stood at 43 percent on a per capita basis,” the Texas senator began.
“In 2021, which is 49 years later, the per capita rate of firearm ownership is 42 percent,” Cruz added, using numbers found in a Gallup poll regarding the issue.
“You had almost the same percentage of people in the United States who owned firearms. What’s made a difference is the society in which we are all now living,” Cruz added.
