Shooting victim's father confronts Marco Rubio at CNN event

(RNN) – The father of a girl killed at a Florida high school last week and students of the school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, were among those who challenged Senator Marco Rubio at a CNN town hall event on Wednesday.

Rubio sat onstage at the town hall, in Sunrise, FL, with fellow Florida Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Ted Deutch, both Democrats. Rubio, a Republican, faced much of the questioning from the audience, which included Stoneman Douglas students and families.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jaime Guttenberg, one of the 17 killed last week in Parkland, FL, pressed Rubio on the role of guns and assault weapons in the shooting.

“Look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids,” he said. “And you will work with us to do something about guns.”

Guttenberg told Rubio that his comments, and those of President Donald Trump, in the wake of the shooting had been “pathetically weak.”

Rubio, however, pressed back on a hypothetical assault weapons ban, saying he believed such a law would not have prevented the shooting from happening. Guttenberg responded by invoking his daughter’s death.

“Senator Rubio, my daughter running down the hallway at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, was shot in the back with an assault weapon - the weapon of choice,” he said. “It is too easy to get. It is a weapon of war. The fact that you can’t stand with everyone in this building and say that … I ‘m sorry.”

Rubio did express his support for a range of gun control measures. The senator said he would support a law that raised the required age of gun ownership, the banning of bump stocks and changes to the background check system.

The senator was further pressed by a student, Cameron Kasky, about accepting donations from the National Rifle Association. He asked Rubio, “Will you not accept a single donation from the NRA?”

The senator did not answer the question directly. Instead he said, “I will always accept the help of anyone who agrees with my agenda.”

The Democratic congressmen showed more agreement with the audience.

“I've always had guns. I've hunted all my 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.

The NRA proved a contentious subject, with another student, Michelle Lapidot, reading a question: “For the puppet politicians of the NRA - was the blood of these students and these parents worth your blood money?"

A vocal supporter of the organization, Dana Loesch, was scheduled to appear later in the program.

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