Dan Crenshaw Issues Incredulous Reply to Ocasio-Cortez Implying His Friends Are Criminals
Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw issued an incredulous reply Wednesday after democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York implied in a tweet that his friends are criminals.
Crenshaw had responded Tuesday to a story about a woman who fended off a pair of would-be robbers with her handgun.
Referring to calls for universal background checks in response to several recent mass shootings, Crenshaw wrote: “With universal background checks, I wouldn’t be able to let my friends borrow my handgun when they travel alone like this.”
Situations like this story are why we protect the 2nd Amendment.
Side note: With universal background checks, I wouldn’t be able to let my friends borrow my handgun when they travel alone like this. We would make felons out of people just for defending themselves. https://t.co/x60mdd1WW1
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 4, 2019
This tweet caught the ire of Ocasio-Cortez, who asserted Wednesday that the friends he’d be lending his handgun to are “likely” spousal abusers or violent criminals.
You are a member of Congress. Why are you “lending” guns to people unsupervised who can’t pass a basic background check?
The people you’re giving a gun to have likely abused their spouse or have a violent criminal record, & you may not know it.
Why on earth would you do that? https://t.co/TQFjcLQebO
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 4, 2019
“The people you’re giving a gun to have likely abused their spouse or have a violent criminal record, & you may not know it,” she wrote.
Crenshaw was not pleased, and suggested in response that Ocasio-Cortez is out of touch with the way things work outside of New York City.
The issue at hand is not that his friends can’t pass a background check, he said.
“Just so I’m clear: you think my friends are domestic abusers/criminals? Seriously that’s your argument?” Crenshaw wrote. “That they can’t pass a background check?”
He went on to explain that “People lend guns to friends, esp if they don’t own a gun, for self-defense and hunting purposes.”
Just so I’m clear: you think my friends are domestic abusers/criminals? Seriously that’s your argument? That they can’t pass a background check?
Wrong. People lend guns to friends, esp if they don’t own a gun, for self-defense and hunting purposes.
This is America outside NYC. https://t.co/wkWPhfi0JB
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 4, 2019
“This is America outside NYC,” he added.
As The Hill pointed out, different states have varying laws on the books when it comes to lending out firearms.
Federal law, however, makes it illegal to transfer a firearm to a person while “knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person” has been convicted of a felony punishable by more than a year behind bars, is a substance abuser, is an illegal alien, has known mental health issues, has been convicted of domestic violence or has been subject to a restraining order against an “intimate partner” or child.
Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, was not backing down.
“You said w/ universal background checks, you wouldn’t be able to “lend” guns to friends,” she wrote in response to Crenshaw.
You said w/ universal background checks, you wouldn’t be able to “lend” guns to friends.
If a background check would be a problem, then you shouldn’t “lend” a gun.
And btw, NY is one of the safest states in the country when it comes to guns, incl rural areas.
Try to keep up. https://t.co/4RV4DNg7FM
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 4, 2019
“If a background check would be a problem, then you shouldn’t ‘lend’ a gun. And btw, NY is one of the safest states in the country when it comes to guns, incl rural areas.”
She implied in a follow-up post that if Crenshaw’s friends were domestic abusers, he might not even know it.
“Herein lies an important point abt domestic abuse: most of it is hidden. You could know an abuser & have no clue,” she wrote.
Herein lies an important point abt domestic abuse: most of it is hidden. You could know an abuser & have no clue.
I’ve had friends come out to me as victims. It’s not obvious. Unsafe relationships are COMMON.
That’s why House Dems passed closing the boyfriend loophole in VAWA.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 4, 2019
“I’ve had friends come out to me as victims. It’s not obvious. Unsafe relationships are COMMON.”
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