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Rubio: Gun control ‘would have done nothing’ to prevent Oregon shooting

by Jesse Byrnes - 10/06/15 9:48 AM ET

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday that many of the gun-control proposals being advocated wouldn’t have prevented last week’s mass shooting in Oregon.

“Many of the proposals that are out there now on gun control would not have prevented that attack or some of the others that we’ve seen in the past,” Rubio said on NBC’s “Today” show.

{mosads}”Unfortunately, in cases of mental illness or in the cases of someone who just wants a gun to carry out a crime, they’re not going to follow the law,” the Florida senator added.

Rubio’s comments come a day after Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton outlined her gun-control plan during a town hall on the same program, including pushing back on assault weapons and calling for new regulations on private gun sales.

Other Democrats have called for new action on gun control after a 26-year-old man fatally shot nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., before shooting himself. The gunman had five pistols and a rifle at the school, authorities said.

It’s just the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States that have garnered headlines.

But Rubio on Tuesday said the laws under discussion would have made little difference.

“Guns are what they’re using to commit the violence,” Rubio. “In many of these cases, the laws that are actually being proposed would not have prevented them. For example, these were not assault rifles. These were handguns that he had purchased.

“The laws that many are proposing would have done nothing to prevent these attacks,” Rubio added on NBC, suggesting the country focus on seriously addressing mental illness and examining why those who are not mentally ill are driven to violence.

Tags Gun control Guns