Shooting survivor and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) says the Democrats refused his request to testify against the gun control currently being pushed in the House.

Steve Scalise says Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) asked Democrats to let Scalise give testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and they told him no.

Fox News reports that Scalise decided to make public the testimony he would have given, testimony that explains why universal background checks will not reduce gun violence or make Americans safer.

Scalise referenced the June 14, 2017, Congressional baseball shooting in which he was nearly killed. He noted that the gunman acquired his guns via background checks, just as nearly every mass shooter of the 21st century has done. Because of this means of acquisition, Scalise notes that universal background checks would not have stopped the shooting from taking place.

The same can be said about the November 5, 2009, Fort Hood shooting; the July 20, 2012, Aurora movie theater shooting; the May 23, 2014, Santa Barbara shooting; the October 1, 2015, Umpqua Community College shooting; the June 12, 2016, Orlando Pulse shooting; the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas shooting; and the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school shooting, to name but a few. In each of these crimes, the guns used were acquired via background checks.

Would-be mass shooters can pass background checks because they have no criminal record. They have criminal intent, but background checks look backward not forward.

As for career criminals, they do not shop for guns in a retail store. Rather, they buy them on the black market or steal them. Scalise pointed out that “a DOJ study of federal inmates found that only seven percent who possessed a firearm while committing the crime they were serving time for purchased it legally from a firearms dealer under their own name.”

Again, universal background checks would do nothing to deter such criminals because they are avoiding the places where such checks would be conducted.

Scalise wrote, “I firmly believe we must never forget, nor minimize, the importance of the Second Amendment to our Constitution. H.R. 8, as well as other new gun control legislation currently being considered by the House Democrat majority, do not accomplish the goal of reducing gun violence.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.