Marco Rubio says there's "no silver bullet" in creating effective gun control measures

WASHINGTON (CBS News) - In the wake of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Democratic lawmakers staged a sit-in on the House floor last week demanding votes on gun control measures. The Senate failed to advance many proposals to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, but many still search for a solution to the growing number of mass shootings in the United States. During an interview on Face the Nation, host John Dickerson asked former Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Florida, what his solution would be.

"We need to have a real effort to actually pass something that solves the problem." Rubio said during the sit down interview in Miami, Florida. "The goal is twofold. We want to be able to keep guns or anything that's dangerous out of the hands of criminals and terrorists, but we want to be able to do so in a way that doesn't undermine the Second Amendment right of law-abiding Americans."

Rubio criticized the goals set forth by the Democratic lawmakers staging the sit- in, saying that none of their proposals would have solved the problem in the case of the Orlando shooting. This includes preventing people on terrorist watch lists from purchasing a gun, as the Orlando shooter was no longer on any sort of list.

"If you wanted to prevent Orlando, you had to have a proposal that allows you to look back for five years or whatever at people that were once on the list." The Florida Senator said and added, "Even if the F.B.I. is notified, there's no guarantee they would have actually gone out to see what he was up to. Because the sheer volume of people they have to look at is so extensive."

Rubio told Dickerson that there is no "silver bullet" solution to the problem, but stressed that, "Denying law-abiding Americans guns is not going to solve the problem of criminals and terrorists acquiring guns."

"We need to learn from Orlando," Rubio said, "And pass laws that would actually prevent future Orlandos."

For more of our interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio click here.