Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) got into a heated debate with co-host Joe Scarborough over the 2008 Supreme Court ruling in Heller v. District of Columbia, which protected the Second Amendment right to possess a firearm.

Cruz said, “If you want to ask common sense what we ought to be asking is what actually stops violent crime. We had a so-called assault rifle ban. The Department of Justice studied that so-called ban and found it had no effect on violent crime. It is a great Democratic talking point. An assault rifle is not a machine gun. Machine guns are functionally legal. They have been for over 80 years. What that call an assault weapon is a scary looking gun. It doesn’t make it any more dangerous. If you want to stop crime –”

Scarborough interrupted, “Wait. It actually, the studies show that weapons like the AR 15 are actually designed to be more lethal.”

Cruz said, “The lethality is distinguishable from many deer rifles.”

Scarborough shot back, “So your argument here is deer rifles are just as lethal —if somebody takes a deer rifle into a high school in Parkland, that deer rifle is going to be as lethal as an AR-15?”

Things got heated when Scarborough said, “You know every American doesn’t have a constitutional Second Amendment right to carry an AR-15. yes or no?”

When Cruz said the Supreme Court is allowing the issue to percolate, Scarborough replied, “Senator, there are a lot of people, lawyers right now, who are rolling their eyes at what you’re saying.”

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

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

He added, “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.”

(h/t The Hill)

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