During a town hall meeting on Wednesday, one of the Florida school shooting survivors asked Senator Marco Rubio, “Why do we have to march on Washington just to save innocent lives?”
“You’re right,” Sen. Rubio replied, “What you’ve lived through, and what you live through, is not supposed to be a part of your high school experience.”
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The moment was captured on CNN while Sen. Rubio, Sen. Bill Nelson Rep. Ted Deutch, and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, conversed with a group of survivors from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Rubio went on to explain that he is currently supporting a measure that would allow law enforcement to take guns away from anyone who is reported by a close family member as being a threat.
“And that person will have due process,” Rubio said. “Because I believe that if that were in place in Florida … it could have prevented this from happening.”
Ryan Deitsch, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas senior who asked the question, then respectfully interrupted, “If I may, I do appreciate your words there. But that feels like the first step of a 5K run.”
“It most certainly is,” Rubio acknowledged. “I would say it’s more than a 5K run … This issue will take more than a 5K run because there’s so much to do. But that is an important step, and if that happens in the next three weeks, it’ll be because of what you guys have done.”
Sen. Rubio is not the only politician to speak out following the tragic shooting.
President Donald Trump recently took to Twitter to endorse raising the minimum age for buying more weapons to 21.
“I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks,” the U.S. President wrote.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has also spoken out, specifically calling for a review of mental health reforms.
“Next week in Tallahassee, I’m going sit down with state leaders, we’re going have a real conversation about two things: How do we make sure when a parent is ready to send their child to school, in Florida, that parent knows that child is going to be safe?” Scott said during a joint news conference.
“Number two: How do we make sure that this individual with mental illness does not touch a gun? We need to have a real conversation so we have public safety for our schools in this state,” Scott continued.
“They’re committed to provide the resources and have a real conversation about how do we make sure we have public safety. I want to make sure that my children, my grandchildren, yours, everybody in this state, can wake up and be safe. I’m going to stay here and do everything I can,” Scott added.
