Ted Cruz was a guest on Glen Beck’s radio show, today to talk about the Democrats’ gun control efforts.

Some of what the Democrats are proposing is thankfully essentially “show legislation”, Cruz maintained. That would include the assault weapons ban that Senator Feinstein was pushing. The universal background checks are another story, though. Universal background checks would extend background checks to every single private transaction between law abiding citizens.

Cruz said that his view is that instead of gun legislation, they should be passing crime legislation. “We should focus on deterrents and punishments on violent criminals.” He explained that instead of taking away rights of law abiding citizens, we should enforce the laws that are already on the books. “Right now, the Obama Justice Dept is not effectively enforcing those laws”, he argued.

The only way they could implement a universal background check is for the federal government to compile a gun registry. And a gun registry Cruz maintained is “very very dangerous”….

When pressed by Glen Beck to explain why, he said, because historically “it’s a precondition for confiscation. If the federal government has a list of your guns, it then can go and take your guns.”