A televised town hall meeting on gun control and school safety might have turned into a defining moment in the career of a prominent US Senator who found himself swimming against the tide.

Once a rising star in his party, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio agreed to take part in the live CNN Town Hall Meeting in Florida during which he found himself in the middle of a large auditorium surrounded by people who really wanted him to change his tune on gun control.  He didn't, and the crowd was not pleased.

The defining moment might have come when the father of a 17-year old girl who was shot dead in last week's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland stepped up to the microphone. 

"Your comments this week and those of our president have been pathetically weak," Fred Guttenberg told Rubio.  His daughter, Jamie was shot in the back, one of 17 young people and teachers murdered that day.  "You and I are now eye to eye.  Because I want to like you, look at me and tell me that guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in this school this week.  And look at me and tell me you accept it and you will work with us to do something about guns."

Instead of expressing sympathy for the loss of Jamie Guttenberg, the Florida Senator began defending his his statements in favor of gun rights while clarifying taht he would be in favor of incremental measures that would prevent some people from obtaining weapons.  "Here's what I said: The problems that we're facing here today cannot be solved by gun laws alone," Rubio said to a stadium of booing. 

Rubio has received more than $3.3 million from the National Rifle Association (NRA) over the course of his political career.  One of the Stoneman Douglas HS survivors who has emerged as an eloquent spokesman tweeted that it comes out to about US$176,000 for each teen murdered last week.  Rubio refused to directly answer a students' request that he refuse any future political donations from the gun rights group.

Throughout the televised session, Rubio was repeatedly booed for refusing to back a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15 which was used at the Parkland high school.  He wouldn't deviate from the NRA's line, even when it was pointed out that there were fewer mass killings in America during the ten years that the assault weapons ban signed by then-President Bill Clinton was in effect.