Marco Rubio Tells Val Demings in Debate 'Gun Control Laws Don't Work'

Republican Senator Marco Rubio has defended his reversal on raising the age to purchase rifles, saying recent mass shootings show that gun control laws are too easily circumvented.

Rubio made the comment Tuesday night in Lake Worth Beach during a debate with his Democratic challenger, Representative Val Demings. The debate sharply contrasted the divergent views of the two, with Demings accusing Rubio of failing to protect the safety of Floridians. Rubio said there are better ways of protecting the public than more restrictions on firearms.

Debate moderator Todd McDermott asked Rubio about remarks he made in 2018 following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, when a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 and injured 17 more. Rubio said during a CNN town hall that the federal minimum age to purchase a rifle should be raised from 18. McDermott asked Rubio if he still supported doing so.

"Let me tell you why that law doesn't work, and why that proposal doesn't work," responded Rubio.

Rubio pointed out that a recent mass shooting in North Carolina involved a suspected gunman who was 15, asking, "Where did he get the gun? He didn't get it from a gun show."

Calling it a "terrorist attack," Rubio brought up the 2016 shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. Rubio said that the shooter in the attack, who killed 49 people while wielding a military-style rifle, was a licensed security guard who had passed a background check needed to carry firearms.

Rubio said the Parkland shooter was known as being troubled in his community and law enforcement had failed to intervene earlier. He added that the way to stop shootings is "to identify these people that are acting this way and stop it."

"The fundamental issue is, why are these kids—why are these people—going out and massacring people?" he said.

Demings, who previously served as chief of the Orlando Police Department and represents a district that includes Pulse, responded incredulously.

"People who are families of victims of gun violence just heard that and they're asking themselves, 'What in the hell did he just say?'" said Demings.

Demings said Rubio hadn't kept his word while doing "nothing to help address gun violence and get dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people." She added that Florida had raised the minimum age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21 and enacted a "red flag law," which allow courts to seize someone's firearms if they are determined to be a threat to themselves or others.

Rubio was among 15 Republicans to vote against a bipartisan gun control bill passed by Congress over the summer that provided additional money to states to help them enact red flag laws, among other measures.

Rubio defended his vote during the debate, saying he had his own bipartisan red flag bill and that the one passed by Congress with the support of "leftists in the Senate and in the House," including Demings, could be easily abused.

Demings said gun control was "about taking dangerous guns out of the hands of dangerous people," which she said was supported by a majority of Americans.

"How long will you watch people being gunned down in first grade, fourth grade, high school, college, church, synagogue, a grocery store, a movie theater, a mall and a nightclub and do nothing?" she said.

"Everything she's for would have done nothing to stop any of these shootings," replied Rubio.

Newsweek reached out to March for our Lives, a group formed after the Parkland shooting, and the National Rifle Association for comment.