Scalise pins blame on Democrats for gun violence

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Sunday blamed Democrats for a rise in gun violence across the U.S., blaming the “defund the police” movement and local authorities for being lax on criminals.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” guest host John Roberts, Scalise said the reason gun violence and crime rates are so high in the U.S. compared to other countries is because of the “defund the police” movement and loose policies from city district attorneys, who he claimed release prisoners early or hand down lighter sentences to violent criminals.

“You look at America in the last couple of years, you’re seeing this crazy ‘defund the police’ movement. But you’ve also seen a movement that’s been going on for a few years in big cities where the [district attorneys] aren’t even prosecuting criminals until it is a shooting,” he said.

“They’re letting criminals back out on the streets and inevitably what you see is higher rates of crime,” Scalise continued. “And what you’re also seeing is more and more American citizens, law abiding citizens, buying guns to defend themselves.”

Scalise joins a number of Republicans pushing back against gun control measures to curb a rising number of mass shootings and gun violence across the country. A group of bipartisan senators have been meeting to determine if they can come to any agreement on a gun-related measure following the killing of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last month.

The Louisiana Republican told Roberts on Sunday he does not support red flag laws despite a majority of Americans expressing support for measures that take guns away from individuals a court deems a threat.

Scalise repeated a GOP talking point that Congress should address mental health and other societal factors that cause mass shootings. He said everyday gun violence on the streets, which are less high profile but take far more lives than mass shootings, are rising because Democrats are lax on the “out of control” crime.

“Look at the smash-and-grab crimes. Do you think it’s going to end there?” he told Roberts on Sunday. “If they think they can get away with a crime, they’re not going to be charged, they will go on to commit other crimes. It’s happened in other places. Let’s get back to regular policing.”