Sen. Ted Cruz at gun hearing: Cities with strictest laws have highest murder rates
WASHINGTON - At a hearing packed with victims of gun violence, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Tuesday that cities with the strictest guns laws have murder rates many times those in his home state, where guns are readily available.
“For example, if you look at six cities with the highest murder rates, Detroit sadly in 2011 topped the list with 48 murders per 100,000 people,” said Cruz. “Baltimore, Maryland, was second with 31 murders per 100,000. Philadelphia was third with 21 murders per 100,000 people. Memphis, Tennessee, the only one of the top six without especially vigorous gun laws, was fourth with 18 murders per 100,000 people. Washington, D.C., was fifth with 18, and Chicago, Ill., was sixth with 16 murders per 100,000 people.”
By contrast, he said in his hometown of Houston, the murder rate was 9 murders per 100,000 people; in San Antonio, the number was seven, Austin, 4, and El Paso, 2. “That means that the rate in Detroit is 24 times higher than it is in El Paso,” said Cruz.
Cruz is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, which was holding a hearing Tuesday on what subcommittee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., described as the need to reconcile Americans’ right to life, liberty and the happiness, with their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
More at http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2013/02/12/sen_ted_cruz_at_gun_hearing_ci.html/ .
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