Perhaps they refused because Scalise emerged from the shooting understanding that people must be armed to defend themselves when under fire. Or it could be because the gun control bill pushed by the Democrats, H.R. 8, would not have prevented the Congressional baseball attack from occurring; this is because the gunman acquired all his weapons via background checks.
Either way, Scalise made clear that the Democrats refused to let him testify.
Scalise told Fox News he was surprised when the Democrats refused his request. He said:
I was surprised, because it’s unprecedented. In the past, when we were in charge on the Republican side, if the Democrats selected among one of their witnesses to be a sitting member of Congress, we always gave them the courtesy of testifying in a proper setting, and we were asking for that same courtesy — and they denied it.
Former Republican presidential contender Herman Cain opined on H.R. 8 and the Democrats’ efforts to keep Scalise from testifying in support the Second Amendment:
It’s worth noting that none of the draconian restrictions in H.R. 8 would have done anything to prevent the overwhelming majority of the mass shootings that have occurred in America. This blatant infringement on the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is just another radical gun confiscation bill, not the sort of “common sense” regulation its deceptive name is clearly intended to suggest.
Rep. Scalise tried to make that point, drawing on his unique perspective as a survivor of a mass shooting, but the Democrats barred him from speaking, presumably because they knew he would be an effective advocate for the rights enshrined in our Constitution.