Sen. Rand Paul: If the Capitol Police hadn't been at baseball practice, 'it would have been a massacre'

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) described being at baseball practice for the annual congressional baseball game when a gunman opened fire on the Republicans on the field.

"I was in the batting cage at the time," Paul recalled on MSNBC. "The first shot was sort of an isolated shot. I grew up in the South, and I just thought someone had discharged a shotgun, which isn't that unusual in the South. But then I thought, well, we are in the city, we aren't in the country here."

Paul said after that, the gunman began to rapidly fire at the lawmakers. Multiple people were injured, including Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).

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"I probably heard 50, 60 shots," Paul said. "We finally heard a response from the Capitol Hill police. We're actually very lucky they were there … One of the things that's really fortunate — everyone probably would have died, except for the fact that the Capitol Hill police were there. The only reason they were there is because of leadership on our team."

Paul added: "If Scalise hadn't been on our team … it would have been a massacre." Jeva Lange