Democrat Running Against Ted Cruz Wants to Release Crime Scene Shooting Photos to Secure AR-15 Ban

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D), the Democrat running against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), is campaigning on an AR-15 ban and wants to release crime scene photos from shootings to encourage more support for the ban.

On November 19, 2023, Gutierrez posted video to X, wherein he talked about the benefit he thinks crime scene photos would garner for the gun control lobby.

Gutierrez was being interviewed on MSNBC in the video and said, “We are lost, on this space, in these United States, on guns. We need an ‘assault weapons’ ban once and for all.”

Referencing the May 24, 2023, Uvalde elementary school shooting victims–19 students and two teachers–he said, “I’ve seen everything that that gun did to those children and the images that I’ve seen I can’t take out of my mind.”

Gutierrez did not mention the individual who actually shot the children, and neither did the MSNBC host.

However, the interviewer did ask Gutierrez, “I wonder if you think those images can have any effect right now? How can those images continue to change the public discourse on gun reform?”

Gutierrez responded, “Look, I’m a gun owner. I don’t own any AR-15s, but I think at some level we do need to see some images. Maybe not as stark as everything I’ve seen, but we need to understand that these children are gone.”

Gutierrez ended the MSNBC interview by saying, “We must reinstitute our ‘assault weapons’ ban so that this doesn’t happen to more kids.”

Neither Gutierrez nor the MSNBC host pointed out that California has had an “assault weapons” ban since 1989, yet CNN reported that California had four mass shootings during one week of January 2023.

Moreover, an FBI report indicated California led the nation in “active shooter incidents” in 2021.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.