Obama cited the major provisions of his package of gun proposals, including background checks on all gun sales, a ban on semi-automatic weapons that mimic military weapons, and limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds.
Listing gun violence victims -- Hadiya's parents, Giffords, the families of the Newtown schoolchildren and others killed in mass shootings, Obama said "they deserve a vote" as the audience cheered loudly.
In his response, Rubio sounded the NRA line that "unconstitutionally undermining the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans is not the way to" reduce gun violence in the country.
On foreign policy, Obama announced that this time next year, another 34,000 U.S. troops will have returned home from Afghanistan.
The move will reduce by more than half the current force level of 66,000 troops in Afghanistan. Obama and NATO previously announced that Afghan forces will take the lead in combat missions this year.
By the end of 2014, the planned official end of the combat mission, the White House is considering a range of troop levels for Afghanistan, from as many as 15,000 down to zero.
One thing Obama didn't mention Tuesday night was new regulations on carbon emissions for existing power plants a senior administration official said. Environmentalists hoped the president's pledge in his recent inaugural address for increased steps in response to climate change would include expanding tougher standards in place for new power plants to those already in existence.
At the same time, the president promised executive action on climate change if Congress fails to address what he called a litany of evidence that the nation and the world face increasing impacts such as more frequent and powerful storms, wildfires and drought.
One new measure from the president will be an executive order signed Tuesday to address the country's most basic cybersecurity needs.
The order will make it easier for private companies in control of our nation's critical infrastructure to share information about cyber attacks with the government. In return, the Department of Homeland Security will share "sanitized" classified information with companies about attacks believed to be occurring or that are about to take place.
Congress has failed so far to pass any of the dozens of cybersecurity bills aimed at meaningfully securing critical infrastructure from an online criminals.
Rubio is a tea party favorite being promoted as the new face of the Republican Party due to his Hispanic heritage and strong communications skills.
Obama won overwhelming support from the Latino vote in defeating GOP challenger Mitt Romney in the November election.
Rubio is leading an effort by some Republicans to shift party policy on immigration reform by accepting the concept backed by Obama and Democrats that the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants should have a path to legal status.
However, he neglected to mention specifics of an immigration reform plan in his response Tuesday night.
When Obama raised the immigration issue in his speech, a bipartisan group of senators, including Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, stood and applauded together to signal bipartisan support for moving forward.
In addition to Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky offered a second Republican response that reflected the concerns of tea party conservatives who support him. Paul criticized Obama and Congress for failing to seriously address the federal deficit and national debt.
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