House Minority Whip Steve Scalise Stephen (Steve) Joseph ScaliseHouse GOP slated to unveil agenda ahead of election House panel details 'serious' concerns around Florida, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin elections Scalise hit with ethics complaint over doctored Barkan video MORE (R-La.) said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) decision not to allow him to testify during a hearing on gun violence Wednesday may have helped amplify his message on gun rights.

Scalise — who sustained life-threatening injuries after being shot during practice for the congressional baseball game in 2017 — alleged by not allowing him to testify, Nadler “broke from tradition” by denying “a member who had a relevant testimony to give.” But the Louisiana Republican said the media attention gained from the incident provided him with a wider platform to discuss his view.

“In the end, my message got out and that was that there is a different side of the story to their attempts at gun control,” he told reporters Thursday, adding he believes the bill Democrats are backing on gun control “done some pretty radical things” that could lead to the penalization “a lot of law-abiding gun owners.”

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“That should be pointed out and I did point that out in some of the national interviews that I did after the fact, because if he had allowed me to testify it probably would have had a lot less attention,” he said, adding he doesn’t believe the bill would have stopped his shooting or the one in Parkland Fla. last year.

“So if anything he helped amplify my message that gun control isn’t the answer that would solve anything you buy my message that gun control is not the answer and that you should look at the underlying problems - there were breakdowns in government at many different levels that have led to past shooting and we need to do more to hold people accountable and prevent that from happening again. … It was people with guns that saved my life,” he said.

Scalise likened Nadler’s decision to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiTrump puts Supreme Court fight at center of Ohio rally CDC causes new storm by pulling coronavirus guidance Overnight Health Care: CDC pulls revised guidance on coronavirus | Government watchdog finds supply shortages are harming US response | As virus pummels US, Europe sees its own spike MORE (D-Calif.) retracting President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE’s invitation to deliver the State of the Union during the partial government shutdown.

“It was sort of like when Pelosi tried to stop the president from giving the State of the Union. There were probably more people that watched the State of the Union Tuesday than they would have on the original date because they saw Democrats trying to suppress a message. I hope this isn’t a new practice of Speaker Pelosi's majority to try and deny alternative views from theirs.”