An unexpected shootout over guns erupted in a House hearing on terrorism Wednesday, prompting a pro-gun lawmaker to mock ineffective anti-gun laws and call for an end to gun free zones because they have become shooting galleries.

"We cannot rely on the federal government and this big bureaucracy to continue to try keep us safe. We've got to revert back, I believe, to the individuals, the law-abiding citizens in this country. We've got to look at the gun laws that are out there now that prohibit law abiding citizens from being able to carry firearms in areas where they could protect themselves," demanded Rep. Jeff Duncan.

"If more gun laws were the answer, more restrictive gun laws that are affecting the Second Amendment rights of Americans, the south side of Chicago would be the safest place on Earth. You could leave your doors open, you could walk the streets at night, and you could allow your children to play in the front yard. And yet that's not the case. More gun laws are not the answer," he said.

The South Carolina lawmaker's strong defense of the Second Amendment came after New York Democrat Rep. Brian Higgins said gun control is the answer to shootings like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

He said "legally purchased guns" are the problem and blamed the easy access to legal purchases on Republicans and Second Amendment groups.

"People often invoke the Second Amendment to justify the continuation of this hell," he said.

When it came Duncan's time to speak, he ripped into House Homeland Security Committee Democrats for turning a hearing on terrorism to gun control and demanded that anti-gun laws be repealed because only law-abiding citizens pay attention to them.

He ticked off the sites of several mass shootings, and called them all gun free zones that left people unarmed.

"We need to allow school marshals and some sort of programs in schools that are now gun free zones so that somebody in that school will have access to a firearm to protect our children," said Duncan.

"Law enforcement can't be everywhere," he sad. "The Second Amendment is there so we can protect ourselves and our family."

The lawmaker also told the police testifying to watch their back.

"Law enforcement in this country is under attack, but we've got your back," he said, adding, "We appreciate men and women in blue that are walking that thin blue line."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com