Rubio warns against ‘jumping to conclusions’ after Florida school shooting

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) on Wednesday cautioned that a law may not have prevented the mass shooting at a South Florida high school.

Rubio said that “people still don’t know how” the shooting occurred, or how the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, obtained the weapon he used to kill 17 people in the Broward County school. 

“I think it’s important to know all of that before you jump to conclusions that there was some law that we could have passed that would have prevented it. And there may be, but shouldn’t we at least know the facts?” Rubio said on Fox News.

Rubio said it was not appropriate for his Senate colleagues to use the incident as an opportunity to call for increased gun control immediately.

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) took to the Senate floor after the shooting to call the shooting a “a consequence of our inaction” on gun violence. He said that mass shootings are a uniquely American problem. 

“I think you can always have that debate,” Rubio said of gun rights. “But if you’re gonna have that debate about this particular incident you should know the facts of that incident before you run out and prescribe some law that you claim could have prevented it.” 

“I’ve seen a lot of that on TV, and maybe there is a law that could have prevented this instance. But we don’t know that and neither do they,” he added. 

Authorities believe that the shooter used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, according to NBC News. That type of weapon has been used in other recent mass shootings.