Scalise: Democrat Gun Control Legislation Makes Criminals of Law-Abiding Americans
WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel's Ingraham Angle last night to discuss Democrats' real agenda to criminalize gun owners behind their gun control legislation. Whip Scalise emphasized that while Democrats claim these laws will prevent gun violence, the reality is they will make criminals out of law-abiding citizens and would not prevent mass shootings.
On the true implications of Democrats' gun control legislation:
"First of all what these bills will do is they will make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.
"If you look at the bills, [the Democrats] hide behind background checks. The background check system is already in place. What this bill will say, for example: If you have a gun and you want to loan it to a friend because maybe she was beaten up by her boyfriend. She has a TRO against her boyfriend and she's afraid he's going to come back and hurt her tonight. She comes to you and she says, 'Can I borrow your gun tonight because I fear for my life?' If you give her your gun, once she goes back to her house, you are now a felon. You could go to jail for a year and have a $100,000 fine.
"We tried to take that out by the way and the Democrats blocked that amendment. That's what this is about."
On Republican attempts to change the legislation to catch legitimate criminals:
"We tried to bring an amendment to say, if an illegal alien tries to buy a gun and goes through the background check system, which would red flag it saying this person is here illegally. We said okay, now that he's tried to illegally buy a gun in violation of federal law, notify ICE so that he can be deported. The Democrats blocked that amendment.
"A law-abiding citizen will go to jail and be a felon, and an illegal person can't be turned over to ICE under the Democrat bill."
On the failure of this legislation to prevent mass shootings:
"What's really sad about this is that they hide behind some of these tragedies, like Parkland. Take the baseball shooting. Their bill would not have done anything to stop these tragedies. Las Vegas—their bill wouldn't have done anything.
"What it would do is make criminals out of law-abiding citizens. If you go hunting with a friend and your friend wants to borrow your rifle, you better bring your attorney with you because depending on what you do with that gun you may be a felon if you loan it to him. Let's say he wants to go scope it at the range before he goes and shoots deer. That act can make you a felon subject to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine."
On the Left's ultimate gun control agenda:
"Ultimately, they want federal registration of all guns, true registration, and then confiscation is the next step."
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"Look at California again, their utopian state is California for all of these crazy ideas they have. They have universal background checks in California. When they did it, it didn't reduce crime. What it did is make criminals out of a lot of law abiding citizens."