Scarborough faces off with Cruz on gun control: ‘I don’t need you to lecture me’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday got into a heated discussion with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough over gun control.

In an appearance on “Morning Joe,” Cruz and Scarborough debated AR-15 rifles, constitutional law and the Second Amendment. At a particularly contentious point in the argument, Scarborough accused Cruz of talking “down” to him.

“I don’t need you to lecture me on what the Supreme Court does and what it doesn’t do,” Scarborough said. “You can talk down to me all you want to.”

{mosads}Cruz and Scarborough had been arguing over whether the Second Amendment and the related 2008 Supreme Court ruling in Heller v. District of Columbia, which protected the right to possess a firearm such as a handgun.

Cruz, a vocal defender of the Second Amendment, argued that an AR-15 is “indistinguishable” from commonly used deer rifles. The conversation reached a boil after Cruz insisted that courts will assess whether Americans have the constitutional right to carry an AR-15.

“Senator, there are a lot of people, lawyers right now, who are rolling their eyes at what you’re saying,” Scarborough said.

“My career was litigating before the Supreme Court,” Cruz shot back. “I recognize this is not what you do.”

Scarborough insisted that it is “not a constitutional right” to own an AR-15, which is the type of gun allegedly used in the Florida school shooting last month.

“Even a dumb country lawyer like me understands that an AR-15 today is not recognized as a constitutional right of Americans under the Second Amendment,” Scarborough, a former Republican lawmaker from Florida, said.

Scarborough and Cruz continued to spar, talking over each other about the Supreme Court’s process of accepting cases and the details of the Second Amendment.

“I give you credit for swatting away what is legal reality,” Scarborough said.