On Thursday’s edition of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) urged people “go pray for the families, care about these families, don’t try to promote your agenda in the middle of a tragedy.” He also dismissed “this idea that one magic law is going to stop” the next mass shooting.

Scalise said, “Any time there’s any kind of tragedy, I mean, a shooting, a bombing, whatever, immediately, you’ve got a group of legislators that go run out and start calling for gun control to take away the rights of law-abiding citizen[s]. And they don’t know the fact of that particular event. And again, look at their bills, read their bills. They have nothing to do with these kind of shootings. What I first think we need to do is pray for the people that died…the families too, and all of these kids, Laura. There were a lot of kids that witnessed this that are going to have this with them the rest of their lives. The prayers helped me tremendously.”

He added, “[Y]ou go find your law that was going to prevent this or the next shooting. And first of all, whatever criminal did these actions violated a whole host of other laws too. So, if you think there’s some magic unicorn law that’s going to stop it from happening, just keep in mind that he violated probably dozens of laws already, including murdering people. It’s against the law. So, this idea that one magic law is going to stop the next one from happening, it’s not.”

Scalise further stated, “What you do see in common, number one, you see a lot of mental illness in common. But you see gun-free zones. … Fortunately, with me, I had two law enforcement agents that were with me that had guns that could counter the shooter, and ultimately, that’s what took him down. It was other people with guns that took down this shooter. Every day in America there are people that use guns to stop crimes, to defend their own families. That’s what our Founding Fathers wrote about, by the way, they believed in an innate right of people to have guns for self-defense. And these people that want to take away your rights, guised under all of these tragedies, go pray for the families, care about these families, don’t try to promote your agenda in the middle of a tragedy.”

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