Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that President Obama opposes the Second Amendment but “doesn’t have the guts to admit it.”
“I actually think the president, and he just doesn’t have the guts to admit it, is not a believer in the Second Amendment, although he states that he is,” Rubio said on Fox News’s "The O’Reilly Factor."
“The Second Amendment is in the Constitution — I didn’t write the Constitution, and neither did you and neither did he. If he doesn’t want the Second Amendment to be in the Constitution, or if he wants to reform the Second Amendment, then have the guts to admit that,” Rubio added.
Obama is locked in a heated battle with congressional Republicans and some conservative groups, most notably the National Rifle Association (NRA), over the future scope of the Second Amendment after a string of deadly mass shootings.
“I’m going to let you in on a secret. The president is a liberal and he sees this as an opportunity to get things done,” Rubio continued. “I think this is what he’s wanted to do his entire political career and he sees an opportunity to do it and he’s going to use every rhetorical device he can use.”
Obama called Wednesday for Congress to approve new bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and unveiled a plan that includes legislation and 23 “executive actions” the White House said could be put into place immediately.
The executive actions touch on a broad range of gun issues, including efforts to improve existing background checks and gun safety, and even encourage doctors to ask their patients about guns in their homes.
Rubio said he agrees with some parts of the president’s proposals, such as background checks, fingerprinting and gun-safety courses, but that these should be up to the states to legislate and implement.
Rubio also argued the legislation Obama is trying to get from Congress has been proven ineffective in the past.
“What the president is proposing is problematic for a couple of reasons but primarily because it doesn’t work … these ideas don’t work,” he said. “It’s not just Chicago. Washington, D.C., had a very similar gun ban and it didn’t work; in fact, violent crime and murder and all these things skyrocketed in Washington during the time of these bans.
"Criminals don't care what the law is. They ignore the law. That's why they are criminals,” he added.
