(Video: CNN)
Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R) has often proven himself to be a foil to the typical Republican voter despite his conservative protestations, but when it comes to the Second Amendment the former U.S. Navy SEAL can attest that “guns in this country are not a problem.”
The combat veteran appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday to discuss with Dana Bash what measures could be taken to prevent another tragedy like the one that happened in Uvalde, TX Tuesday. Using the solemn memorial outside Robb Elementary School where 19 children and two teachers were murdered as a sordid backdrop for her argument, Bash attempted to make the case that by their existence alone, guns pose a danger.
“It sounds like you’re saying guns in this country are not a problem. Is that what you’re saying?” she asked as the conversation carried on. “I mean, there are 300 something million people, 400 million guns. You don’t see that as a problem?”
“No,” Crenshaw replied matter-of-factly. “Culturally we are a country that has long had a Second Amendment that believes in the right to self-defense. I don’t think it’s a problem that I own guns.”
“And I know if I destroyed all of my guns it would have zero effect on crime,” he went on. “It would have zero effect on gun homicides because I’m not the person who goes and shoots somebody.” The Texas lawmaker went on to point out that he would be the kind of person that would use a firearm to defend someone else’s life before schooling bash on the “hundreds of thousands of cases a year where somebody uses a gun to protect themselves or protect others.”
Crenshaw was citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make his claim. Meanwhile, a similar assessment was made by the Social Science Research Network that estimated approximately 1.67 million incidents per year of a firearm being used defensively with more than three-quarters of those occurrences taking place on the gun owners property or within their home.
While Bash tried to argue that Republicans weren’t offering solutions, as she frequently interrupted the congressman who explained the numerous times school safety laws had been promoted, she drove forward with the Democrat talking points that attempt to reimagine the Founders intent in drafting the Second Amendment.
“A lot of these policies that I think the Democrats often propose that are gun control policies,” Crenshaw explained, “they do two things. One, they infringe on the rights of millions and millions of gun owners. Two, they probably wouldn’t have the outcome that you’re hoping for. So if you’re not going to get the benefit that you want but it’s going to come at great cost, it generally means it’s not a very good policy.”
“How can you be so sure?” Bash asked incredulous.
“We can look at data, we can have discussion for awhile, but the correlation between gun ownership and gun violence is not very strong. It’s not as strong as a lot of people tend to believe it is,” he asserted.
When Bash later used an excerpt of the Second Amendment to uphold the claim that it is strictly for “A well regulated Militia,” the former SEAL noted there was a comma after that and explained, “There’s two different ideas to the Second Amendment. There’s the individual right to own a gun and there’s the right of the people to have a well regulated militia.”
In fact, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, considered the father of the U.S. Constitution and the mastermind behind the Bill of Rights had stated in one of his many arguments in favor of an armed populace, “I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials.”
As to her argument against “weapons of war” being readily available to civilians, Crenshaw debunked that claim as well explaining that even the similar firearms used by service members are not readily available to average Americans and those are more commonly used for self-defense. In contrast, actual weapons of war are not available to the public.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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