Scalise survived being shot during the June 14 attack in which
a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Congressional baseball players in Alexandria, Virginia.
During his Sunday appearance, host Chuck Todd peppered Scalise with numerous questions about gun rights and gun control, but never received the answer he wanted. Finally Todd said, “Let me ask you this philosophically, is there a limit? Is the right to bear arms unlimited or is there a limit?”
Scalise responded, “The Second Amendment really predates the Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers believed strongly in gun rights for citizens. Frankly they thought it was an assumed right; they didn’t put it in the Constitution because they didn’t think it would ever be in jeopardy.” He noted that the Founders then recognized that a threat to gun rights could arise from a centralized government, therefore the founders hedged gun rights with the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
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Todd pressed, “But is it (RKBA) unlimited?”
Scalise responded, “It is.” At the same time, Scalise noted that laws have been put in place and said the solution to the criminal use of guns is not more laws, which “only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to own a gun.”
Todd eventually shifted to bump stocks, describing the devices as accessories that turn a semiautomatic weapon “virtually into an automatic weapon.”
Scalise responded by saying he and most of his colleagues had no idea what a bump stock was prior to the Las Vegas attack. In light of that, he found it curious that members of Congress already “rush to judgment” and “have a bill written already” to enact gun control for bump stocks. He added, “Look, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) already said she wants it to be a slippery slope; she doesn’t want it to stop at bump stocks. They want to go out and limit the rights of gun owners.”
