Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) speaks during a press conference at the US Capitol on December 17, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Democrat-proposed red flag laws are unconstitutional and they will not reduce violent crimes. In an interview Sunday, the Louisiana lawmaker explained that seizing firearms from an individual based on an assumption they pose a threat violates the Second Amendment.
“Maybe somebody thought taking away a gun from a 19-year-old is going to solve a problem,” he noted. “It happens to be unconstitutional, so you have to follow the laws and the Constitution.”
Scalise then pointed to a ruling by a federal court, which struck down a bill raising gun ownership age in California as unconstitutional. The Republican stressed, Democrat efforts to seize legal guns falls in that same vein.
“We need to be focused more on stopping things before they happen,” he noted. “This isn’t something that we’re having a conversation about right now and it should be. It immediately becomes about Democrats wanting to take away guns.”
Scalise also stressed that everyday in America people use guns to defend themselves, but those cases do not make flashy media headlines. Republicans have lamented that the path to solving gun violence in America seems to be impossible amid an extremely partisan White House. This comes as Democrats in Washington, D.C. seem to be unwilling to lay down their partisan arms to solve the problem of gun violence.
Today’s Judiciary markup has been a missed opportunity to achieve real progress.
House Republicans want to save children’s lives and have come to the table with solutions. Yet Democrats are ignoring the need to harden schools and improve mental health.https://t.co/nonYXRckDo
— Richard Hudson (@RepRichHudson) June 3, 2022
Experts have warned Democrats could try to jam through gun control bills through the House while the lower chamber has a slim majority. However, they said those proposals would likely be blocked in the 50-50 Senate.
Source: One America News Network
