Ted Cruz has already drawn a couple of Democratic challengers in next year’s Senate race; current Rep. Colin Allred and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez. A new profile of the pair from the Texas Tribune claims that the two Democrats offer up competing views on a number of issues, including gun control, but after reading their positions I’m struggling to see how there’s any noticeable difference between the two when it comes to our right to keep and bear arms.

Preventing gun violence is one of Gutierrez’s top reasons for running. He represents the district where the Uvalde school shooting took place last year and has spent the year energetically pushing for gun restrictions at the Texas Capitol.

“The Safer Communities Act was a good start, but not nearly enough,” Gutierrez said of the post-Uvalde federal law that increased background checks for gun buyers under age 21 and created new funding for state gun-safety programs.

Gutierrez said he wants to see universal background checks, red flag laws that allow judges to temporarily seize firearms from people who are deemed dangerous and an increase in the minimum age to buy an AR-15 from 18 to 21. As for stopping the future sale of such firearms, he said he is open to a ban with exceptions for law enforcement, military veterans and farmers who can prove they need such a weapon for something like killing feral hogs, a common problem in rural Texas.

Gutierrez said he was not ready to support a mandatory buyback of semi-automatic weapons, the idea that Beto O’Rourke controversially pushed in his 2020 presidential campaign. Gutierrez said he supported a voluntary buyback but questioned whether a mandatory program would work.

“It becomes something that becomes impossible to enforce,” Gutierrez said.

Allred credited U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, for his work advancing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year, and Allred said any continued work in gun safety will have to be measured and in line with what can realistically pass a closely divided Senate.

Like Gutierrez, Allred backs universal background checks, red flag laws and raising the minimum age to buy semi-automatic weapons to 21. He also supports banning the future sale of such weapons.

“Those are all things that I think have broad, broad support and that I think we can get done right now,” Allred said. “I’ve always been focused on what can we do right now.”