Sen. Cruz: Democrats are Using Topic of "Ghost Guns' to Distract From Failure of Gun Control Policies in "Big Democrat Cities'

Press Release

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today delivered remarks at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "ghost guns'-an unhelpful term used for homemade firearms-and Democrats' efforts to propose restrictions on Second Amendment rights while ignoring the growing violence in Democrat-run cities. Highlights of his remarks are below.

On the issue of so-called "ghost guns' and Democrats' efforts to restrict Second Amendment rights, Sen. Cruz said:

"Last Friday, the Biden administration published proposed regulations to significantly expand the regulation of firearms in this country. That proposed regulation and this hearing both focus on so-called "ghost guns.' It's a name that is intended to scare people. It's designed to make people think that certain firearms are more dangerous than others, that certain firearms are beyond the reach of current law. That's nonsense, it's simply not the case. The so-called "ghost guns' that we're talking about are nothing but homemade firearms. There's nothing special about them. There's nothing weird about them. But advocates of aggressive gun control rely on ignorance to scare people. Homemade firearms aren't any more dangerous than any other firearms, and for all relevant purposes, homemade firearms are treated like any other firearm. Under the law, the person commits a crime with a homemade gun they will be prosecuted just the same as anyone else."

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"Chairman Blumenthal observed that: "We have no reliable metric as to any connection between crime and homemade firearms.' That's another way of saying there are zero data, no evidence whatsoever that this is contributing to crime at all. This is a made up problem. And yet here we are having a Congressional hearing pretending that so-called "ghost guns' are a major issue, they aren't."

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"On "ghost guns,' we already know that homemade guns are not a problem in terms of actually being involved in violent crime. When the Department of Justice surveyed criminals to ask how they obtain firearms used in crimes, not a single one appears to have said that he made his own weapon. Again, the Department of Justice asked violent criminals, "Where'd you get their guns?' Zero said it was a so-called "ghost gun.' Forty three percent of criminals got their firearms from underground markets, six percent stole them, and twenty five percent of them obtained them from an individual."

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"Why are we talking about this made-up issue? It's simple, Democrats don't want to address the consistent, proven empirical failure of gun control laws, they don't work and they make crime worse. But they also want to scapegoat law-abiding citizens, the hobbyists who make home homemade guns, who are not committing crimes, they want to scapegoat them. But the real issue is in something Chairman Blumenthal made several references to, he referred to these guns as untraceable. That term was meant to be ominous. That's what this is all about, the Democrats on this committee want to trace every firearm in America. They want a registry of every firearm in America, they want a government list of what guns they are there are, who owns them, how many they own them. And inevitably, when you see countries enact registries of firearms, the next step is confiscation."

On increased violence in Democrat-run cities, Sen. Cruz said:

"If we want to have a hearing on gun violence, there are real topics to discuss. Gun violence and violent crime is a real problem in this country. It's not the made up problem of "ghost guns.' But in 2020, gun violence soared to rates not seen in 20 years, with over 19,000 people killed by homicides and unintentional death, not including suicides. TIME magazine reported that gun violence surged in the city of Chicago in 2020, with shooting incidents increasing by over 50 percent and homicides by 55 percent when compared to 2019. New York, the 2020 murder rates increased by 37.3 percent and 37.5 in Philadelphia, compared to 2019. These cities, of course, all have things in common. They're all run entirely by Democrats, they all have strict gun control measures that criminals don't follow. Law abiding citizens are disarmed, the criminals are not, and the deaths follows accordingly. They're also all epicenters of the Democrats radical push to defund the police."

On Democrats' support of Biden administration officials who have called for defunding the police, Sen. Cruz said:

"This committee has confirmed one senior official at the Department of Justice who's advocating defunding the police, and this committee is preparing to move forward as a second senior official at the Department of Justice who's advocating defunding the police. If Democrats want to stop gun violence, let's have a hearing on how the move to defund the police is causing more homicides. Let's have a hearing on how gun control proposals are making people more vulnerable to violent crime and how they failed the big Democrat cities. That actually would be a hearing focused on crime and stopping it, and not instead a made up topic."

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"You [Sen. Blumenthal] just said a moment ago that no Democrat favors abolishing the police. If that were the case, why did every single Democrat vote to confirm Vanita Gupta, a nominee for the number three position of the Department of Justice, who said last year in writing, in written testimony before the Senate, advocated abolishing the police and she was confirmed by one vote, every single Democrat was the necessary vote to confirm a radical who advocated abolishing the police. And just this week, we're taking up Kristen Clarke, another radical who last year in testimony before the Senate, advocated abolishing the police. If you don't support abolishing the police, why do you keep voting for nominees who advocate abolishing the police?"

On his previous legislation targeting violent criminals and not law-abiding Americans, Sen. Cruz said:

"Chairman Blumenthal wants to target violent crime. I would encourage him to join Senator Grassley and me in the Grassley-Cruz legislation that I introduced nine years ago, targeting violent criminals, going after them, improving the background check system, improving the database, prosecuting felons and fugitives who lie, trying to illegally buy a firearm. And I would note that when Grassley-Cruz was voted on the Senate floor in 2013, in a Democratic Senate. It got 52 votes on the Senate floor. It got nine Democrats who voted in favor of it, the most bipartisan support of any of the comprehensive legislation and the reason Grassley-Cruz didn't pass, Senate Democrats including all three of the senators on the Democratic side of the aisle here today voted against it and filibustered it, blocked it, blocked real legislation targeting violent crime. Why? Because the objective instead is to target law-abiding citizens. That does nothing to stop crime, but it does a great deal to undermine our constitutional rights."

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