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(USA Today) HOUSTON -- Sen. Ted Cruz brought a pro-Constitution anti-crime message to the National Rifle Association's annual meeting Friday, challenging Vice President Joe Biden to an hour-long debate on gun violence.More than 6,000 NRA members gave Cruz, a freshman Texas Republican and a rising GOP star, a standing ovation for threatening to filibuster attempts to pass gun control legislation.Just a couple months ago, Cruz said, the gun bill "looked like an unstoppable freight train." But that legislation is now in doubt after Senators blocked an amendment last month that would have expanded background checks to include sales at gun shows and over the Internet."The Constitution matters. All of the Constitution," Cruz said. "It's not pick and choose. It's not take the parts you like and get rid of the parts you don't like."Some senators have faced home-state protests for voting against that background check amendment last month. But Cruz said there ought to be protests against Democrats who voted against another amendment, sponsored by Cruz and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that would have cracked down on violent crime. "Citizens ought to ask them, 'Why aren't you willing to support going after felons and fugitives who try to illegally buy guns?" he said.Cruz mocked Biden, who has taken the lead for the Obama Administration on gun issues.Biden's advice that firing a warning from a double-barreled shotgun is sufficient to ward off attackers would be "very useful -- if it so happens that you're being attacked by a flock of geese."