after parkland
Marco Rubio stakes new gun rights positions, endures fierce grilling from Parkland survivors at CNN town hall
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) participated in a CNN town hall in Sunrise, Florida, on gun violence and school shootings Wednesday night, and it was not a particularly friendly crowd.
Rubio actually announced some new positions on gun rights. "I absolutely believe that in this country if you are 18 years of age, you should not be able to buy a rifle, and I will support a law that takes that right away," he said. He backed "a gun violence restraining order" in which a parent or caretaker petitions authorities to prevent family members from buying guns or take guns away. Rubio said he's "reconsidering" his opposition to limiting magazine clip size because "while it may not prevent an attack, it may save lives in an attack."
Still, people who lost loved ones in the Parkland shooting grilled him. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was one of the 17 people killed in the shooting, told Rubio his comments over the past week have been "pathetically weak" and asked him to support a ban on assault rifles. (Rubio argued such bans don't work because people find loopholes.)
Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, asked Rubio if he would continue taking donations from the NRA. (Rubio said the NRA and other donors "buy into my agenda.")
Rubio was booed a lot, but Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) told the audience that Rubio showed "guts" by coming to the forum, when President Trump and Gov. Rick Scott (R) — Nelson's possible 2018 opponent — declined invitations.
Finally, Rubio said that, unlike Trump, he does not support arming teachers. "The notion that my kids are going to school with teachers that are armed with a weapon is not something that, quite frankly, I'm comfortable with," he said. He might want to borrow a line comedian Jimmy Kimmel tried out Wednesday night: "Can you imagine if teachers are allowed to bring guns to school and not peanut butter?"