A reporter got a dose of reality after questioning Ted Cruz about gun control at a vigil for the victims of the Uvalde massacre and later stating that “American exceptionalism is awful.”
Sky News reporter Mark Stone repeatedly badgered Cruz (R-TX) about gun control, mocked America, and pushed a left-wing narrative that this nation is the problem.
“There are 19 sets of parents who are never going to get to kiss their child tonight, again,” Cruz said.
“Is this the moment to reform gun laws?” Stone replied.
Cruz fired back, “You know, it’s easy to go to politics.”
That’s when things got a little more intense.
Cruz rips UK reporter as ‘propagandist’ over mass shooting question https://t.co/3K9a85LMQL pic.twitter.com/VQhhEbViro
— New York Post (@nypost) May 26, 2022
Ted Cruz Schools Reporter on American Exceptionalism
The Sky News reporter must have thought he had the upper hand in the debate as Ted Cruz began to walk away from the agenda-minded Stone.
“The proposals from Democrats and the media inevitably, when some violent psychopath murders people —” Cruz said before being cut off.
“A violent psychopath is able to get a weapon so easily,” Stone said. “Eighteen-year-old with two AR-15s.”
Cruz responded by pointing out that none of the current reform ideas from Democrats would have stopped the recent mass shootings.
Enough is enough.
We need to act by hardening school security and hiring armed police officers to keep our kids safe. pic.twitter.com/ObDfWdH7ev
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 26, 2022
The Sky News reporter pivoted to lobbing insults at America.
“But why does this only happen in your country? I really think that’s what many people around the world, just — they cannot fathom why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?” he asked.
“You know, I’m sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful,” Cruz shot back adding, “You know what? You’ve got your political agenda. God love you,” and walking away.
Stone kept hammering the point as another person chimed in claiming only America has this gun problem, an assist which led him to excitedly chirp and repeat, “You can’t answer that.”
Cruz turned back to Stone and glared directly into his face.
“Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it’s the freest, most prosperous, safest country on Earth. Stop being a propagandist,” he said, and with that ended the debate by walking out the door.
“Why only in America?”
US Senator Ted Cruz walks away from @Stone_SkyNews after being asked if “this is the moment to reform gun laws” https://t.co/d2oBaP4KvW#TedCruz #America #Texasshooting #gunlaws pic.twitter.com/gL4TYeg04t
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 26, 2022
Is This Uniquely America’s Problem?
It’s a good talking point for low-information voters, but the idea that mass shootings are a uniquely American problem is a debatable concept.
First off, American media uses groups like Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety to run their anti-gun stories. These are two groups that use inflated statistics to bloviate the dangers of guns in America.
Everytown, for example, in 2018 had listed as school shootings such incidents as a window being broken with a pellet gun after hours, an accidental discharge, and a random person shooting themself in a parking lot of a school that had been shut down.
The list included other “shootings” which were actually suicides or accidentally-fired weapons. The media takes their inflated numbers at face value and runs with them after every single mass shooting incident.
Mostly False: 18 U.S. school shootings so far in 2018 and 18 in rest of the world over past 20 years https://t.co/TTfrL0wxhB
— PolitiFact New York (@NYPolitiFact) February 16, 2018
Secondly, the notion that America far outpaces the world in mass shootings has been disputed by some researchers.
Journalist John Stossel, in commentary from 2019, pointed out the truth behind the inflated numbers.
“NPR reporters looked into the 235 shootings reported by the U.S. Department of Education (the year prior) and were only able to confirm 11 of them.”
That means they were only off by 95% of the cases.
Some studies from 2015 placed the United States down the list at number 11 when calculating the average annual death rate based on population. In terms of frequency that year, according to the pro-gun nonprofit Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), America ranked 12th.
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