Some conservatives are criticizing what they say is a media double standard after The Associated Press ran a photo of Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzMurkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight Sunday shows - Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death dominates MORE (R-Texas) with the picture of a gun in the background pointing directly at his head.

“Imagine the outcry were he a Democrat,” said an editorial at the conservative news website Breitbart. “How many think pieces about violent imagery and responsible reporting would we see? How many more if he were a woman? Keep this in mind for the 2016 campaign. This is the playing field.”

AP on Cruz photos: “The images were not intended to portray Sen. Cruz in a negative light” pic.twitter.com/ZYrtHtWz4F — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 22, 2015

“Don’t hold your breath waiting for the AP to put out a photo of Hillary Clinton with a gun pointing at her head,” said John Hinderaker at the conservative PowerLine Blog.

The Associated Press stirred controversy with the photo of Cruz taken over the weekend at a campaign stop at a shooting range in Iowa. The AP is not apologizing for the photo, arguing that “the images were not intended to portray Sen. Cruz in a negative light.”

“No, of course not,” responded Paula Bolyard at PJ Media. “The photographer had no idea what he had there when he lined up that shot (no pun intended) and then clicked the shutter. And the editor who approved the images for AP use also had no idea that there might be a problem with a picture of a gun pointed at a Republican presidential candidate’s head. They’d have done the same to a Democrat, right?”