Despite Being Shot, Rep. Steve Scalise Calls Gun Control ‘Dangerous’

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana was shot earlier this year as he practiced for a charity baseball game. Despite nearly dying, Scalise doesn’t believe the government should put limits on gun ownership.

“It's dangerous for the concept that the federal government would have some kind of list of who has guns and what they have,” said Scalise Sunday to NBC.

Scalise was gravely wounded by a lone gunman who targeted Republican members of Congress on June 14. Scalise was shot in the hip and the wound nearly killed him. Scalise returned to Congress Sept. 28.

“The problem is not that there are too many guns," he said. “It's that there are people that will go out and break the law.”

The ten-minute shootout happened in Alexandria, Virginia. A Capitol Police officer, Congressional aide and lobbyist were also injured in the shooting. The shooter, James Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, was shot by police and later died.

The shooting received bipartisan condemnation, but no gun control bills were passed.

The mass shooting last week in Las Vegas that left 58 dead and over 500 injured did not change Scalise’s mind about gun control either.

“Don't try to put new laws in place that don't fix these problems,” said Scalise. “They only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to own a gun.”

Scalise also called the right to bear arms unlimited.

Some Republicans, typically averse to gun control measures, expressed interest in a bill that would ban “bump stocks,” after the Las Vegas shooting. A bump stock is a device that allows a semi-automatic rifle to shoot faster, mimicking a fully automatic weapon. Several of the devices were found on guns in the hotel room of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock.

Scalise opposes such a ban.

“Most people didn't know what a bump stock was,” said Scalise. “So to think that we're now all experts and know how to write some ... panacea law — it's fallacy. Let's focus on the facts. Let's get the facts and let's go focus on some of the problems.”

And despite Paddock amassing 47 guns, 33 of them in the last year, Scalise doesn’t believe in limiting the amount of guns one should own.

“It’s dangerous for the concept that the federal government would have some kind of list of who has guns and what they have,” said Scalise.