Republican Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said this week that his views in support of the Second Amendment are as strong as ever, even after he survived a pointed attack on Republican congressmen in June that nearly claimed his life.
READ: To Everyone Telling People Their ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ Don’t Matter After Las Vegas
Scalise, who spoke this week with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum about a range of issues, including his recovery and guns, didn’t hesitate when MacCallum asked if his own experience as well as the Las Vegas shooting changed his perspective on firearms.
“I think it [has] fortified it, because … when there’s a tragedy like this, the first thing we should be thinking about is praying for the people who were injured and doing whatever we can to help them, to help law enforcement,” he said. “We shouldn’t first be thinking about promoting our political agenda.”
Scalise added his belief that many of the gun control policies that have been proposed wouldn’t have done anything to stop the Las Vegas shooting, as the gunman cleared background checks.
In the end, he said immediately pushing for gun control in the wake of tragedy is “the wrong way to approach this,” and he said that guns are more often than not used to protect people from criminals.
“When there was a shooter, luckily we had Capitol Police there with their own guns,” Scalise said of his own experience, adding that there are countless stories of regular citizens using guns to stop assailants that never get told.
Watch Scalise’s comments below:
MacCallum followed all that up with another question in a quest to clarify his gun stance: “So, you’re as strong on the Second Amendment as ever.” Scalise said that he hasn’t wavered.
As Faithwire previously reported, Scalise and other Republican congressmen were attacked by James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, as they practiced for a June charity baseball game that is held annually against a team of their Democratic peers.