Guns & God Appreciation Day; Cruz hits CEOs' ignorance

FPI / September 13, 2019

In their “call to action” letter on guns in America, 145 executives of major corporations are engaging in “social signaling” while not understanding even fundamentals of the “gun issue,” Sen. Ted Cruz said.

Cruz’s comments came as a coalition of Second Amendment supporters has set Guns & God Appreciation Day on Sept. 14. In the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the coalition said it believes another attempted “gun grab” is in the works and is calling on gun rights advocates to push back.

“We are asking everyone to be prayerful about returning our nation to God as the only solution to the hatred and mass murder plaguing our blessed country,” said coalition founder Larry Ward.

The coalition is asking supporters of Guns & God Appreciation Day to rally “at their state capitals,” attend guns shows, “shoot off a few rounds at your local gun range.”

During a recent media breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, the Texas Republican said that he met with a group of CEOs to discuss the issue and said he found the executives ill-informed on gun-control.

“At least one of those banks that came out with one of those oh so brave letters, when I sat down with their leadership and asked them about it, the people who wrote the letter didn’t know the first thing about the substance,” Cruz said.

“I promise you, the people signing this letter don’t know any of the details of background checks or red flags.” Instead, Cruz said, the letter “is about social signaling.”

A letter to the Senate signed by the CEOs of 145 companies states that gun violence is a “public health crisis,” adding, “That’s why we urge the Senate to stand with the American public and take action on gun safety by passing a bill to require background checks on all gun sales and a strong Red Flag law that would allow courts to issue life-saving extreme risk protection orders.”

Cruz said: “I don’t think it is a positive thing to see big corporations shifting their focus from the customers, actually doing what they were created to do, into trying to become political players on divisive social issues.”

The Texas Republican added: “We have seen in recent months and years, for example, big banks trying to use their economic power to defund politically disfavored groups. That’s not the job of a bank.”

Still, Cruz, who met with actress and gun control advocate Alyssa Milano this week, said that there is a need for Congress to act, and he suggested that legislation he and Sen. Chuck Grassley are sponsoring to improve background checks is the best place to start.

“When it comes to guns, let me be absolutely clear, yes, Congress needs to act,” he said. But he said extreme liberal calls for gun bans and gun grabs are not the place to start.

Free Press International