U.S. Sen. Cruz on Heller, the Second Amendment

WASHINGTON, DC – Some media outlets have incorrectly characterized what U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said at yesterday’s Judiciary Committee mark-up on guns. In particular, some commentators have attacked a straw-man, falsely claiming Cruz argued the Heller v. DC case did not allow any restrictions at all under the Second Amendment.

What Sen. Cruz said was directly to the contrary, as this hearing clip demonstrates:

Sen. Cruz said Heller makes clear that laws prohibiting weapons “in common use” for self-defense are unconstitutional. Thus, under Heller “dangerous and unusual” weapons—like fully automatic machine guns and sawed-off shotguns—can be restricted, but weapons like so-called “assault weapons” which are undoubtedly “in common use” (with over 4 million owned by Americans) cannot.

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