Post-shooting, some in GOP want to loosen gun restrictions

WASHINGTON — Shaken and angry, Republican members of Congress seized on the brazen daytime shooting of their colleagues this week to demand that existing restrictions on gun access be loosened so that people facing similar attacks are able to defend themselves.

Past shootings have brought calls for more gun control, especially for restrictions on the kind of rifle used in Wednesday’s attack. But the ardent supporters of gun rights who came under fire this time were not about to change their views.

As Rep. Steve Scalise, the third-ranking House Republican, was recuperating from surgery for a gunshot wound to the hip, his colleagues complained that Washington’s restrictive gun laws had barred him and other lawmakers who live in the capital from bringing weapons to the baseball practice in Alexandria, Va.

“Had there not been a member of House leadership present, there would have been no police present, and it would have become the largest act of political terrorism in years, if not ever,” Rep. Tom Garrett of Virginia said, pointing to legislation he has introduced to make it easier for people to carry a gun in Washington. That bill “would allow the most law-abiding among us to defend themselves,” he said.

Republicans who had gathered for the morning workout before Thursday night’s annual congressional baseball game were blunt about their sense of vulnerability.

“The field was essentially a killing field,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was there when the shooting happened. “You had no way to defend yourself.”

The emboldened response on the right