Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., appeared Friday morning on CBS News to discuss his presidential campaign, but he ended up facing a panel of journalists who wanted to know why he voted this week against gun control legislation even after a shooting spree in San Bernardino, Calif.
“None of these crimes that have been committed, or in this case, what I believe was a terrorist attack in California, would have been prevented by expanded background checks,” he told the CBS This Morning panel.
On Thursday, Rubio opposed an amendment in the Senate that would’ve denied due process and stripped Second Amendment rights from anyone on the federal government’s terror watch list, including people listed as “suspects.”
The now-failed amendment was intended to “increase public safety by permitting the Attorney General to deny the transfer of firearms or the issuance of firearms and explosives licenses to known or suspected dangerous terrorists.”
But because the proposed measure called for the removal of a citizen’s rights without first giving them due process, Rubio said he couldn’t vote for it.
He added that other proposed measures, including expanded background checks, would do nothing to prevent the sort of mass shooting events that have spurred renewed efforts in Congress to curb gun purchases.
However, considering that his vote came just one day after two shooters, the now-deceased Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, stormed a building in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 and injuring many more, the CBS This Morning paneled wondered if the optics weren’t good for the Florida senator.
“The fact of the matter is, these individuals would’ve passed expanded background checks,” Rubio said. “None of the major shootings that have occurred in this country over the last few months or years that have outraged us, would gun laws have prevented them.”
“In fact, many of them existed despite the fact that local jurisdictions had gun laws even stricter than what you find in other jurisdictions. We have a violence problem in America, and we should be concerned about the violence,” he added.
The senator continued, suggesting that lawmakers should dig deeper and ask why there is so much violence in the first place.
“It is a combination of cultural changes that have occurred in our country, and mental health issues as well,” he said.
Farook and Malik are believed to have been radicalized by Islamic extremists. Law enforcement officials also believe that Wednesday’s deadly shooting may have been inspired by Islamic State propaganda.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Friday that it is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.
