John McCain's Fake Fight With Ted Cruz Over Guns on Military Bases

The salvo that turned out to be a misfire.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talk as they leave the Senate Republicans' policy lunch on Tuesday, April 1, 2014.
Photographer: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

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By David Weigel

April 21, 2015 at 4:28 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

On Sunday afternoon, Texas Senator Ted Cruz told gun rights advocates that he was fighting to prevent another Fort Hood massacre by defending the Second Amendment on military bases.

"One of the things I've publicly called for on the Armed Services committee is for us to have hearings on why the military has a policy of not allowing soldiers to carry their firearms onto bases," Cruz told a questioner at the Londonderry Fish and Game Club in New Hampshire. "I am very concerned about that policy. Now, I want to give an opportunity for military leadership to lay out their views as well, because they have opposed changing that policy, and I think the proper way forward is to have hearings. It's one of the things I'm pressing. I hope the new chairman, John McCain, will agree to have those hearings." (My emphasis.)