Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Steve Scalise
Interview
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INGRAHAM: Tomorrow, House Dems will bring two gun-control bills to the floor, but will these background checks actually protect law-abiding citizens or would it just make it harder for them to obtain firearms? Congressman Steve Scalise knows a lot about these issues and these two bills. Just a few weeks ago Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee blocked him from testifying at a hearing on gun violence. He is here to react. Steve, what do you make of these two bills, and will they make us safer?
REP. STEVE SCALISE, R-LA, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Laura, first of all what these bills will do is they will make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.
INGRAHAM: How so?
SCALISE: If you look at the bills, first of all, they 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's got a TRO against her boyfriend and she's afraid he's going to come back and hurt her tonight, and she comes to you and 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 $100,000 fine.
INGRAHAM: Wow.
SCALISE: It's in the bill. We tried to take that out, by the way, and the Democrats blocked that amendment. So that's what this is about.
And by the way, 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, by the way, would then red flag it, saying this person is here illegally, we said, OK, now 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. So a law-abiding citizen will go to jail and be a felon, an illegal person can't be turned over to ICE under the Democratic bill.
INGRAHAM: Do they think that this time it's going to work, that the gun issue for them is going to work? Because they take a step forward and a step back on this, because usually, except in places like Massachusetts where that Congresswoman is from, it doesn't really work. Even with these horrific tragedies, people kind of move on, which I guess could be a bad thing. But people generally think, be tough on crime, be tough on criminals, make it hard for a truly mentally unstable individual from getting a firearm. You're in favor of that, correct?
SCALISE: Absolutely. And what's really sad about this, Laura, is that they hide behind some of these tragedies, like Parkland, like, 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, by the way, 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. And let's say he wants to go scope it at the range before he goes and shoots deer, that act could make you a felon subject to a year in prison and $100,000 fine.
INGRAHAM: So they want a federal database, do they not?
SCALISE: Ultimately they want gun registration of all guns.
INGRAHAM: A federal, but even if you --
SCALISE: And then confiscation is the next step.
INGRAHAM: If it's in a sale from a friend to a friend --
SCALISE: They want to make that subject to going through a dealer. In D.C. right here, in Washington, D.C., there is only one licensed dealer. Talk about a monopoly. How much will they charge for that transaction?
INGRAHAM: How does that stand? There have been legal challenges to this. And for the most part people --
SCALISE: Look at California. 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 made criminals out of a lot of law-abiding citizens.
INGRAHAM: I've got to tell you, when Congress did not do that reciprocity --
SCALISE: I was a co-sponsor. Richard Hudson's bill --
INGRAHAM: That was an outrage, congressman. When you have a gun and a gun license in Virginia, it should be automatic reciprocity in Minnesota, and in Colorado, period.
SCALISE: If you want to go through all those extra steps to know how to handle a gun safely. By the way, the population of people who have those concealed carry permits are much safer population, they actually prevent crimes from happening.
INGRAHAM: Steve Scalise, it's great to see you, thanks so much.
SCALISE: Always good to be with you, Laura.
INGRAHAM: And a happy Mardi Gras.
SCALISE: Happy Mardi Gras.
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