Blogger Gets Bruised for Blasting Cruz on Gun Safety

Gizmodo blogger Wes Siler was the newest blogger to criticize GOP Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, but it wasn’t for any political stances, it was for the way he held a gun on a hunting trip.

Siler’s problem with the Republican Senator from Texas seems to be that he doesn’t, in the writer’s opinion, know how to hold a gun. He excoriates Cruz in his blog entitled “Hey Ted Cruz, you’re holding your gun backwards!” Read the blog here. His contention is that the Senator is flagging his fellow hunters with a potentially dangerous weapon oblivious of the way he is endangering them.

The problem with this criticism is that Cruz wasn’t hunting at the time. He was not holding his weapon at the ready as he stalks a pheasant. He was talking to reporters. You can see in video and photo that the Senator his holding a double-barreled over-under shotgun over his shoulder broken in the middle with the shells out. This is a position that many hunters consider a safe way to carry a gun when not actually hunting.

“While his action is visibly open, he is still not in control of muzzle direction. In a break-action gun [as Cruz is carrying here] the muzzle should always point down.” Wes Siler, Gizmodo

Siler suggests the Senator carry his weapon the other way, broken over his shoulder with the barrel down. I’ve never seen this method of carry and don’t know quite frankly what it would be useful for. When hunting, I would adopt a carry at the low ready stance with the weapon’s muzzle on the ground in front of me, with my hands away from the trigger. To carry a shotgun in this way, it can be raised quickly for a shot, yet doesn’t endanger other hunters to your left and your right. The method Siler recommends seems awkward. I’m not sure how you would raise your weapon quickly in this method or for that matter, load in time to take a shot at a bird that just got up. It seems ridiculous. I’m not alone in this argument apparently.

“If you don’t know anything about guns, maybe don’t write about guns!” Kemberlee Kaye – Legal Insurrection

Blogger Kemberlee Kaye also sounded off on the ridiculousness of this argument in her blog for Legal Insurrection entitled: Gizmodo Reporter’s Attempt to Smear Ted Cruz’s Gun Use Goes Embarrassingly Awry. She lambasts Siler, not pulling any punches when she writes, “If you don’t know anything about guns, maybe don’t write about guns!” I couldn’t have said it better.