Senator Marco Rubio affirmed Tuesday evening that he’s not only an anti-abortion absolutist — he’s also a Second Amendment extremist. Facing questions about gun control during his debate with Democratic challenger Val Demings, the Florida Republican suggested background checks were useless, called the modest safety bill some in his own party supported “crazy,” and turned his back on a measure he backed in the wake of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas school shooting in 2018.

“That doesn’t work,” he said, reversing his previous support for imposing age restrictions on assault weapons, like the kind the Parkland shooter — who was recently sentenced to life in prison without parole — used to kill 17 people and wound more than a dozen others. “The fundamental issue is, why are these kids, why are these people, going out there and massacring these people?” Rubio asked. “Because a lot of people own AR-15s and they don’t kill anyone.”

“People who are families of victims of gun violence just heard that and they’re asking themselves, ‘What in the hell did he just say?’” Demings replied.

According to Rubio, the best way to address the uniquely American problem of gun violence is not through common sense laws most Americans — including a significant number of firearm owners themselves — support. It’s by identifying “these people that are acting this way and stop them before they act.” The way to do that, he said, is through red flag laws, a version of which he introduced in 2018. Notably, though, he voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included incentives for states to pass red flag laws.