Rubio stands against effort to infringe on Second Amendment rights

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), this week joined Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressing his opposition to any legislation with additional restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

“We, the undersigned, intend to oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance,” the senators write. “The Second Amendment to the Constitution protects citizens’ right to self-defense. It speaks to the history’s lesson that government cannot be in all places at all times, and history’s warning about the oppression of a government that tries.”

In joining this effort, Rubio added, “We should look for ways to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill prone to misusing them, but I oppose legislation that will be used as a vehicle to impose new Second Amendment restrictions on responsible, law-abiding gun owners. We should work to reduce tragic acts of violence by addressing violence at its source, including untreated mental illness, the lack of adequate information-sharing on mental health issues, and the breakdown of the family.”

A PDF of the letter is available here.