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NEWPORT, NH — How did Senator Marco Rubio spend Christmas Eve?

Buying a gun in Florida, his campaign said.

Mr. Rubio on Friday told employees of Sturm, Ruger & Co., a gun manufacturing company here, that he sought to buy a weapon on Dec. 24 and found that the store he went to “was packed” with young and old customers, some of them, he said, worried that President Obama would further restrict their right to purchase guns. He did not say whether the gun was meant as a gift or where the store was.

“I went to go purchase a handgun on the 24, on Christmas Eve,” he said, lamenting efforts by Democrats to “stigmatize gun owners.”

Mimicking gun control advocates, he said: “Why do you need so many guns? Buy a Taser. Buy a can of mace.’ That’s the attitude they give off.”

A campaign spokeswoman, Brooke Sammon, confirmed later that the senator did indeed buy a gun, and added that, given his campaign travel schedule, Christmas Eve “was one of the only days he was home in Miami recently.”

During his visit to the gun company, Mr. Rubio cradled a rifle in his hands and described himself and his wife, Jeanette, as owners of handguns, not rifles.