Shooting town hall: Sen. Rubio on defensive on gun control

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Associated Press

SUNRISE, Fla. — Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was put on the defensive Wednesday by angry students, teachers and parents who are demanding stronger gun-control measures after the shooting rampage that claimed 17 lives at a Florida high school.

One of those confronting the Florida senator at a CNN’s “Stand Up” town hall Wednesday night was Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed on Feb. 14 with 16 others. Rubio was the lone Republican at the nationally broadcast gathering after Florida’s GOP Gov. Rick Scott and President Donald Trump declined invitations to appear at the event in Sunrise, Florida.

Guttenberg told Rubio that his comments about the shooting “and those of your president this week have been pathetically weak.”

People stood up and cheered Guttenberg as he challenged Rubio to tell him the truth, to acknowledge that “guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids.”

Guttenberg added, “And tell me you will work with us to do something about guns.”

Rubio responded that the problems laid bare by the shooting rampage “cannot be solved by gun laws alone,” drawing jeering whistles from the crowd. Rubio responded that he would support laws barring those 18 and under from buying such weapons, support changing the background checks system and getting rid of bump stocks.

He said that if he believed an assault weapons ban “would have prevented this from happening, I would have supported it.” That drew jeers. Visibly angry, Guttenberg responded: “That is a weapon of war.”

Sen. Bill Nelson and Congressman Ted Deutch, both Democrats from Florida, also were present on a dais.

Nelson said he grew up on a ranch and hunted all his life.

“I still hunt with my son but an AK-47 and an AR-15 is not for hunting, it’s for killing,” said Nelson to applause.

Ryan Schachter, whose brother Alex, was fatally gunned down at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was among those questioning the lawmakers.

“I’m supposed to go back to school in the upcoming week,” said Schachter. “Me and my friends worry we are going to be murdered in our classrooms.”

Student Cameron Kasky did not mince words telling Rubio, “It’s hard to look at you and not look down the barrel of an AR-15 and not look at Nikolas Cruz” before asking squarely, “Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?” The room erupted in cheers as Rubio replied that people buy into his agenda and that he supports laws to keep guns out of the hands of deranged people.

Rubio said he does not support arming teachers and Nelson agreed saying Trump’s suggestion on arming them was “a terrible idea.”

Shortly before the town hall event opened, the sheriff of the Florida county torn apart by the rampage spoke to the cheering audience, drawing them to their feet as he exhorted them to press on for stricter gun controls.

Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County declared the U.S. has had enough of deadly shootings and that he was personally saddened to have through the crime scene of a “horrific killer” 30 minutes after the attack last week. He said the young people should hold lawmakers accountable for making their schools and other community places safer or they won’t be re-elected.

“Never again!” he declared of the Parkland attack, exhorting the young people to press on: “America’s watching you … there will be change.”

Earlier in Tallahasse, the normally staid Florida statehouse filled with students, including more than 100 survivors of the Feb. 14 attack at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, on the edge of the Everglades. Many held signs, chanted slogans and burst into lawmakers’ offices demanding to be heard.

They were welcomed into the gun-friendly halls of power, but the students’ top goal — a ban on assault-style rifles such as the weapon used in the massacre — was taken off the table a day earlier, although more limited measures are still possible.

Many protesters complained that lawmakers were not serious about reform, and they cautioned that they would oppose in future elections any lawmaker who takes campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association.

“We’ve spoke to only a few legislators and … the most we’ve gotten out of them is, ‘We’ll keep you in our thoughts. You are so strong. You are so powerful,’” said Delaney Tarr, a senior at the high school. “We know what we want. We want gun reform. We want commonsense gun laws. … We want change.”

She added: “We’ve had enough of thoughts and prayers. If you supported us, you would have made a change long ago. So this is to every lawmaker out there: No longer can you take money from the NRA. We are coming after you. We are coming after every single one of you, demanding that you take action.”

Outside the building, the crowd burst into chants of “Vote them out” as speakers called for the removal of Republican lawmakers who refuse to address gun control issues. One sign read, “Remember the men who value the NRA over children’s lives” and then listed Republicans in Florida’s congressional delegation. Other signs said, “Kill the NRA, not our kids” and “These kids are braver than the GOP.”

College students also joined in the rally. Florida State University students Apolline Demiraj, 19, and Lindsay Rapp, 20, held signs that said “Protect Our Kids, Not Guns” and “Stop Prioritizing the NRA Over Lives — Ban the AR-15.”

Some of their classmates graduated from the high school and knew some of the victims, they said.

“It’s just not normal that it keeps happening, and if we can help make a change so that it never happens again, I will protest here every day,” Demiraj said. “We have so many friends that went to Douglas and who have lost people there, so it really was a slap in the face.”

Demiraj registered to vote as soon as the rally ended and said the Parkland shooting will influence her vote.

Elsewhere, teens in at least a dozen South Florida schools walked out of class to protest gun violence and commemorate the shooting victims. About 2,000 students, parents, teachers and supporters held hands and chanted outside the Parkland campus.

Megan Mui, a 15-year-old, walked two-and-a-half hours from her school to Stoneman Douglas.

“I want to show my support for the changes we need to make so this never happens again,” she said, adding that she would like to see a ban on weapons like the AR-15. “They should be strictly for military” purposes.

The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, has been jailed on 17 counts of murder. Defense attorneys, state records and people who knew him say he displayed behavioral troubles for years, including getting kicked out of the Parkland school. He owned a number of weapons.

“How is it possible that this boy that we all knew was clearly disturbed was able to get an assault rifle, military grade, and come to our school and try to kill us?” one 16-year-old student asked the president of the state Senate, Joe Negron.

Negron did not answer directly. “That’s an issue that we’re reviewing,” he said.

When another lawmaker said he supported raising the age to buy assault-style weapons to 21 from 18, the students broke into applause.

Florida lawmakers have rebuffed gun restrictions since Republicans took control of both the governor’s office and the Legislature in 1999.

Saying the tragedy at the high school was “completely unavoidable,” Republican legislative leaders say they will consider legislation that will likely call for raising the age limit to purchase a rifle in Florida and increasing funding for mental health programs and school-resource officers, the police who are assigned to specific schools.

Lawmakers are also considering a program promoted by one Florida sheriff that calls for giving law-enforcement training to school employees and deputizing someone to carry a weapon on campus. Legislators may also enact a waiting period for rifle purchases.

“I am extremely, extremely angry and sad,” 16-year-old student Alfonso Calderon said at a news conference at the Statehouse after meeting with lawmakers. “I don’t know if I will have faith in my state and local government anymore.”

He added, “People are losing their lives and it’s still not being taken seriously.”