U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
After the Parkland, Florida school shootings last Wednesday that left 17 dead, most of them schoolchildren, one of the people who comes off looking the worst is Florida’s Republican U.S. Senator, Marco Rubio. Let’s look at Rubio’s responses to the Parkland shooting:
First, Rubio offered prayers, as Republicans typically do. However, Rubio’s version was to admit that his previous prayers did not work:
Just spoke to Broward School Superintendent. Today is that terrible day you pray never comes.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 14, 2018
Then, later on the day of the shooting, Rubio ran to Republican-friendly Fox News for an interview, where he tried to delay the proceedings by saying that we should not yet be discussing gun violence legislation because “people don’t know how this happened.” This drew a sharp retorts by many people, among them:
https://twitter.com/DwayneHinton8/status/963970140676280321
These responses were part of a significant backlash to Rubio by students at the affected Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, and many others. Critics pointed out, for example, that Rubio is number six on the National Rifle Association (NRA) list of career political donations to politicians, with over $3.3 million.
On Wednesday, Rubio also spouted the NRA line on the Senate floor, saying that gun violence laws, even universal background checks favored by approximately 90 percent of Americans, are of dubious value because those who want to commit shootings “will find a way to get the gun to do it.” However, as critics noted, such an attitude is antithetical to Rubio’s job as a legislator, which is to write, vote on and pass laws addressing particular issues. Rubio has done so on virtually every other issue, from abortion to healthcare to taxes to terrorism and more. Somehow for Republicans like Rubio who receive vast sums from the NRA, gun violence is the sole exception for which legislation couldn’t possibly accomplish anything and should not even be tried.
Also on Wednesday, Rubio gave the Miami Herald a somewhat wishy-washy interview, in which he said:
It is unfair to argue that there’s nothing we can do other than be more careful. It’s also unfair to argue that the reason why people are suffering today is because there’s some great law out there that if we had just passed it, it wouldn’t have happened. It’s not accurate. Both of those things are wrong.
After further criticism of his position, Rubio then tried to defend himself with nuance:
also hear how media again tries to inflame by falsely claiming I said “more guns laws won’t do anything” Real quote? “more gun laws ALONE” https://t.co/dro3iDX4L2
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 18, 2018
However, this only invited more criticism and ridicule:
https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/965341400475820032
Then, on Saturday, a Florida-based top Republican donor, Al Hoffman, Jr., vowed not to make any further political donations (including to Rubio) until Republicans (who control both houses of Congress and the presidency) pass a “ban on assault weapons.” Such a ban, which included the AR-15 rifle type used in the Parkland school shootings, was in place from 1994 until 2004, when the Republican-controlled Congress failed to renew it. Since then, Democrats in Congress have tried unsuccessfully to reinstate the assault weapons ban. Last November, Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and her colleagues again introduced new legislation to prohibit assault weapons. However, the Republican-majority Senate, including Marco Rubio, has failed thus far to act on the bill.
Facing continued heat by his Florida constituents and many others, Rubio then backpedaled some more, saying yesterday that Florida lawmakers should consider so-called “red flag” or “restraining order” laws whereby family members or law enforcement officials could ask the courts to confiscate guns from a person who demonstrates that he or she poses a danger to themselves or others. California passed such a law in 2014, after a demonstrably troubled young man, Elliot Rodger, shot and killed three people, shot and wounded 13 others, and then fatally shot himself, after stabbing his three roommates to death. Since then, four states have passed similar laws, and more states are considering them.
One thing voters hate, however, is a politician who seems to have no core principles. Marco Rubio’s behavior before and since the Parkland shootings fits that description. However, Rubio’s shifting stance on gun violence at least demonstrates that the vast majority of Americans, who want to do something about this epidemic, may be having their voices heard at last.
Photo by Hudson Institute, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/Sx8KLO
