Mostly False:
Most Republicans and some Democrats said no to more regulations.
PolitiFact checks a statement from Courageous Conservatives PAC that “after Sandy Hook, Ted Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun control laws.”
A group supporting Sen. Ted Cruz for president took a jab at another Cuban-American hopeful in a video ad that debuted before last week’s Republican presidential debate.
The 60-second spot from the Courageous Conservatives PAC suggests that, unlike Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida doesn’t have a record to cel- ebrate. The group is a super PAC, meaning it may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from sources including corporations and unions to campaign independently for candidates for federal office.
We noticed this pro-Cruz claim in its ad: “After Sandy Hook, Ted Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun control laws.”
The ad’s reference to the Dec. 14, 2012, shootings at a Connecticut school drew a rebuke from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who said the ad made him want to throw up, according to a news story in the Hartford Courant. Murphy said: “If Ted Cruz wants to brandish his pro-gun credentials to Republican primary voters, that’s his right. But it’s sick that he thinks he’ll win votes by specifically pointing out that in the wake of 20 dead first-graders, he was the face
of the fight to ensure no action was taken.”
To be fair, Cruz doesn’t control the Courageous Conservatives PAC; that would be a legal no-no.
Still, did Cruz stop Obama’s gun control plans, as the group says?
That seemed unlikely in that the Texan was only elected to the Senate a few weeks before a man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six adults, prompting calls for stiffer gun laws from President Barack Obama and others.
We asked a PAC contact for its backup information. Consultant Rick Shaftan said the ad was based on Cruz’s comments in an Oct. 29 interview with Bret Baier, chief political anchor for Fox News.
Cruz told Baier: “Over two years ago, following the tragic shootings in Newtown, Conn., the Democrats came out with a massive raft of new gun control proposals. I led the opposition against it. ... We defeated every one of those proposals on the floor of the Senate, defending the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
To get a fix on Cruz’s role in the 2013 debate, we checked news accounts and the Congressional Record, which recaps each speech and floor vote.
On Jan. 3, 2013, the day he was sworn in, Cruz hammered his opposition to gun control proposals, saying the tragic school shootings didn’t justify efforts to curb Second Amendment rights.
About a week later, Cruz responded to Vice President Joe Biden’s vow that Obama would use executive action where he could to help stop gun violence. Cruz said on Facebook: “I stand ready to defend the Second Amendment and efforts to undermine our God-given rights.”
On April 11, 2013, Cruz was on the losing end of a 68-31 Senate vote to let the body — which then had a Democratic majority — move toward considering a proposal to “ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from buying a firearm are listed in the national instant criminal background check system and require a background check for every firearm sale.” Sixteen Republicans joined Democrats in agreeing to proceed.
Six days later, though, the Senate blocked or defeated every major gun control proposal championed by Obama.
Afterward, Obama blamed the National Rifle Association for stoking unreasonable fears. He also laid the blame on Republicans, The Washington Post reported. “Ninety percent of Democrats in the Senate voted for that idea, but it’s not going to happen because 90 percent of Republicans just voted against it,” Obama said.
Cruz was among the critical 46 “no” votes. He also separately joined Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in authoring a substitute proposal, reportedly supported by the NRA, that didn’t impose background checks on transactions at gun shows or on sales over the Internet. But it would have provided incentives for states to submit relevant mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and required federal courts to do so. It also would have allocated money for prosecuting violations of the background check requirement. In the Senate, the Grassley-Cruz proposal was favored 52-46, hence stalling out due to the 60-vote hurdle.
Our ruling
The pro-Cruz PAC said that after the Sandy Hook shootings, “Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun control laws.”
Actually, Cruz had company in stopping the Obama-supported push for new restrictions. Crucially, most Senate Republicans and a few Democrats kept the expansion of background checks favored by Obama from winning further consideration.
Still, we see an element of truth here. Despite just joining the Senate, Cruz frequently spoke out on the issue and shared authorship of an unsuccessful alternative to the failed background-check plan.
We rate the statement Mostly False.