WATCH: Lawmakers offer bills giving them gun rights in every state

GOP lawmakers have introduced nearly half a dozen bills to allow members of Congress to carry a concealed handgun in Washington, D.C., and every state in response to last week’s shooting targeting lawmakers.

The congressmen say increased threats are one of the reasons that legislation is needed.

The “presence of firearms is absolutely necessary at some of our events. As congressmen we are getting increased number of threats and I think it’s just time to do this,” said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas).

{mosads}He has introduced a bill that would let lawmakers carry a concealed weapon across the country after first taking a training course offered by Capitol Police.

GOP Reps Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Jody Hice (Ga.) also sponsored gun legislation. Massie’s bill would offer reciprocity within the District for anyone with a concealed carry permit from another state. Massie’s bill has 60 GOP co-sponsors.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) introduced a measure that allows lawmakers without a gun license or a concealed carry permit the ability to carry a firearm almost everywhere in the U.S. He would not require that lawmakers go through training before getting the license. “None whatsoever,” he said.

Brooks, who was a the GOP baseball practice where a gunman targeted lawmakers and shot and wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), said his bill would empower a congressman to carry a concealed weapon “for self-defense purposes anywhere it the United States.”

Lawmakers could not carry a gun in the U.S. Capitol under Brooks’s bill or when they are in the presence of the president or vice president.

Brooks and Babin are among the 199 co-sponsors of the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act,” introduced by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) — that would grant reciprocity for all individuals licensed to conceal carry in their respective state.

That measure would apply to regular citizens, not just members of Congress.

“I think we ought to be focused on protecting everyone’s rights not just us,” Hudson told Hooper.

Watch the video above to hear the lawmakers in their own words.

– This story was corrected at 8:13 p.m.