Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson incorrectly stated on MSNBC that the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida used an automatic weapon, when in fact he used a semi-automatic weapon.
WATCH:
The shooter used an AR-15, according to Florida law enforcement. An AR-15 is a semi-automatic weapon, meaning that a shooter must pull the trigger for each individual shot to be fired.
An automatic weapon allows multiple rounds of ammunition to be fired with one pull of the trigger.
“Is this OK to talk about gun control policy at this time, sir?” asked host Mika Brzezinski.
Nelson said now is not only the time “to talk about it, but to screw up our resolve to do something about it.”
“Here is an automatic weapon, an assault rifle,” Nelson said, “Just look in Florida: Pulse Night club a couple of years ago, a year ago the Fort Lauderdale airport, now this. And that’s just the state of Florida.”
“We certainly ought to talk about all the other things that everybody is talking about — mental health, protection at schools,” he said. “But we got to get right down to the nub, and that is, should assault weapons be legal?”
The suspect of a mass shooting at Stoneman High School Wednesday is 19-year-old Nikolaus Cruz, who killed 17 victims after pulling the school’s fire alarm.