Marco Rubio on gun control: where does he stand on the issues?

Just two years ago, the National Rifle Association (NRA) spent more than $1m during a single election cycle to support the re-election of the Florida senator Marco Rubio.

Today, Rubio is trying to position himself as a Republican seeking compromise on gun control laws. He agreed to join CNN’s town hall to discuss – with angry, grieving student survivors – what needs to be done after a school shooting left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida.

“Only GOP at CNN townhall”, Rubio tweeted on Wednesday, in response to criticism from a Florida newspaper that he had long dodged the issue of gun control.

Here’s what Rubio has said about gun control and what he’s saying now:

• During his campaign for president in 2016, Rubio said that he had bought a gun in order to personally protect his family from Isis. “If Isis were to visit us or our communities at any moment, the last line of defense between Isis and my family is the ability that I have to protect my family from them or from a criminal or anyone else who seeks to do us harm,” he said. “Millions of Americans feel that way.” He also received a rifle as a present on the campaign trail.
  

• After the Parkland shooting, Rubio suggested that stricter gun control laws could not have stopped the 19-year-old shooter from getting a gun and opening fire on his former classmates and teachers. “I’m trying to be clear and honest here: someone who has decided to commit this crime, they will find a way to get the gun to do it,” he said. “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,” he told the Miami Herald.

• Rubio’s arguments against gun control laws sparked anger and protest, including three billboard signs calling for gun control set up outside his office, a reference to the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

• On Sunday, he suggested that it might be worth considering a new type of gun legislation that would create “gun violence restraining orders”. These laws would give families and law enforcement a way to petition a court to temporarily take away an at-risk person’s guns in moments of crisis or dangerous behavior.

• Gun violence researchers and parents of mass shooting victims have touted these laws an an important tool to reduce violence, particularly because family members and law enforcement may be able to see risk signs long before an individual meets the criteria under law to be permanently barred from gun ownership for life.

• Rubio cited a recent article in the conservative National Review that suggested gun violence restraining orders, also known as “red flag laws”, could be a point of bipartisan agreement that could save lives.

Given the amount of money Rubio has received from the NRA, “his support is surprising – but welcome”, said the New York state senator Brian Kavanagh, who has been leading an effort to pass these protection orders at the state level across the country.

Whether or not Rubio can get fellow congressional Republicans on board, he could still, Kavanagh pointed out, take action in Florida.

“I hope he will follow up his words with real action to ensure [this legislation] is enacted in his home state,” Kavanagh said.