GOP rep. who was shot with assault rifle supports AR-15 sales because people 'use it to defend themselves'

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was shot multiple times with an SKS military-style assault weapon in 2017, said on Tuesday that he supports sales of the AR-15 because people "use it to defend themselves."

During an interview on CBS, Scalise reacted to calls to ban the AR-15 after it was used to kill 17 people at a school in Parkland, Florida.

"Millions of people have weapons like the AR-15 and use them to defend themselves, they have it for self defense, which is the tenet of the Second Amendment," Scalise told the hosts of CBS This Morning. "So, that's one of the things that you've got to balance when you look at changing laws, you've got to recognize, number one, in cases like this shooting and so many others multiple laws were broken. But worse than that, big signs were missed in many cases by government itself."

CBS host John Dickerson argued that a ban on the AR-15 was "just not going to happen" -- even though a majority of Americans support it.

Scalise agreed: "That's just not one of the big discussions here [in Congress]."

Watch the video below from CBS.