PolitiFact Florida fact-checks Sen. Marco Rubio's claim that gun laws don't work

6:10 PM, Feb 1, 2013   |    comments
  • Share
  • Print
  • - A A A +

St. Petersburg, Florida - The gun debate continues over whether gun laws actually work. Florida Senator Marco Rubio is now getting in on the argument.

Will gun laws stop gun violence? That's a question many Americans and lawmakers have.  Florida Senator Marco Rubio recently gave his opinion in an interview with Fox News.

"In the interview, he was trying to make the point that gun control legislation doesn't really work, it's not effective and he used the place where he lives, Washington DC. The city of Washington, they put a gun ban in place and what he said, he tried to make the claim that after the gun ban was in place, gun violence rose," says Aaron Sharockman with PolitiFact Florida.

He says while his claim has some truth to it, Rubio is leaving out details.

Here's why: In the 1970's, Washington DC passed some tough gun laws, but those were all thrown out in 2007.

Within that time frame, Rubio uses data from just a few years and doesn't use all the research available.

"He used FBI data to look at homicides for instance. And there are years in that window when homicides did jump significantly. But what we found is when you really look around you see this was part of a national trend and really didn't have a lot to do with Washington DC in particular," says Sharockman. 

He goes on to say, "When you actually look at some of the numbers in the surrounding areas around Washington DC you actually do see a difference and see that the gun ban might have been effective in stopping violent crime and things like that.

So PolitiFact Florida rates Rubio's claim: HALF TRUE

Most Watched Videos