“Come and Take It,” read Sen. Ted Cruz’s mask at the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
This message to an incoming president made it abundantly clear that Cruz, and those who recognize the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, will be ready to put up strong opposition should the Biden administration attempt to curtail your rights.
As it turns out, the particular phrase on Cruz’s mask has roots in Texas, stemming from the Texas Revolution; specifically the Battle of Gonzales.
In 1835, Mexican forces dispatched 100 troops to the small town of Gonzales, Texas, to confiscate a small cannon originally given to the townsfolk by Mexico to help defend against raiding forces. In response, the townspeople said, “Come and take it,” as they stood up to those seeking to deprive the locals of a means to defend their town and the lives of its residents. Ultimately, the Mexican forces were forced to retreat to San Antonio, and this was the start of the Texas Revolution. The message flew on a flag in a design now featured on Cruz’s mask.
Though the message’s Texas roots are evident, it actually goes back centuries, all the way to the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Spartans had refused to surrender their weapons to Xerxes I of the Persian Empire.
In 2015, at the NRA Annual Meetings in Nashville, Tenn., Cruz issued the same message to presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and then-President Barack Obama (and, by proxy, then-Vice President Biden). “If Hillary Clinton is going to join with Barack Obama and the gun grabbers and come after our guns, then what I say is come and take it,” said Cruz.
It should also be noted that in the not-so-distant past, Cruz staved off a challenge to his U.S. Senate seat in the form of Beto O’Rourke, Biden’s purported gun-control czar. Coincidentally, ever since Biden tried to revive O’Rourke’s fading public image with that proclamation, Beto has been unusually quiet.
It’s as if the likes of Biden and those of similar ilk realized that millions of Americans exercise and cherish the right to keep and bear arms every day, including an estimated eight million new gun owners in 2020 alone, and sought to keep their anti-gun plans under wraps, away from the public eye.
Of course, the mainstream media gave Biden (and Kamala Harris) ample cover in this effort by not asking a single question in either presidential or vice presidential debate about the Second Amendment.
Though they have done their best to hide their anti-Second Amendment agendas, both Biden and Harris have made their intentions clear.
NRA members know there is a long road in front of them, and that the NRA will be ready to defend our Second Amendment rights in the fight ahead. We certainly appreciate elected officials like Sen. Cruz who have made it clear they will stand with us.
