At a Johnston, Iowa, gun range on June 20 Senator Ted Cruz said the attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston shows the need for the death penalty, not gun control.

He made clear that we should be punishing the individual who commit such crimes, rather than responding with a gun control push that punishes the 100 million law-abiding gun owners who did not.

According to The Des Moines Register, Cruz said, “If you have a violent felon, if you have a fugitive who is illegally trying to buy guns, we should come down on them like a ton of bricks. I want to know if there are murderers and rapists trying to buy guns. We should stop them.”

Cruz explained that the death penalty is there as a response to those who commit heinous acts like the one we saw in Charleston.

“Gov. Nikki Haley in South Carolina said this individual who committed the heinous murder in South Carolina should be subject to the death penalty,” he said. “I got to say the death penalty was designed for people who commit horrid crimes like this.”

Cruz also took issue with Democrats for coming after the Second Amendment every time a high profile crime takes place. He highlighted the way they claim to honor the Second Amendment–all the while attacking it–then made clear that upholding the Second Amendment and enjoying gun rights are “altogether different and unconnected from a horrific murder committed by a sick and deranged individual.”

Cruz’s words lay down a clear marker–it’s time to quit punishing law-abiding society for the actions of one criminal and it’s time to make sure the punishment that the one criminal receives is severe enough to end his threat to society and to dissuade others who may otherwise want to emulate him.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.