Scalise shooting: Congressman to introduce bill allowing lawmakers to carry guns

Rep. Mo Brooks on Sunday said he will introduce legislation in the coming week to allow congressmen and senators to carry guns, in the wake of the shooting of fellow Congressman Steve Scalise.

“Right now when we're in Washington, D.C., once we're off the complex … we're still high-profile targets, but we have absolutely no way to defend ourselves because of Washington, D.C.’s rather restrictive gun laws,” Brooks, R-Ala., told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Brooks was at the baseball practice in Alexandria, Va. on Wednesday where the shooting occurred. The Republican congressmen were practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game when a lone gunman opened fire, hitting Rep. Scalise, R-La., in the hip and wounding three others. Scalise was taken in for surgery and remains hospitalized. The shooter, identified as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Illinois, was shot and killed by law enforcement.

A list of names was found on Hodgkinson at the scene, which included Brooks and other Republican congressmen. In a time of divisiveness in the nation’s capital, the Louisiana congressman said the list is concerning to not just him, but his family and friends.

“You've got a situation where, yes, this one shooter has been killed, but he's a member of an organization that applauded what transpired on Wednesday,” Brooks said. “And so those of us who are on this assassination list … it behooves us to be a little bit more wary than we otherwise might be.”