US Congressman-elect Andrew Clyde from Georgia is preparing to take office with gun rights in mind. Clyde is a gun store owner who got his start working out of his own garage back in 1991 and found his way into politics after the government seized almost one million dollars from his bank account seven years ago.
He eventually got most of his money back from the IRS along with an apology. There’s also a law named after him — the Clyde-Hirsch-Sowers RESPECT Act — so the IRS can’t do that to anyone else again.
So, what’s on Clyde’s mind now that he’s headed for Washington? Eliminating background checks on firearm sales, among other things.
Paramount to Clyde’s platform is his staunch support of the Second Amendment and belief that there should be no government constraint of gun ownership.
While Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress support expanding background checks on firearm purchases, closing loopholes at gun shows and more, Clyde is convinced existing regulations have already gone too far.
He campaigned on the “complete elimination” of the background check system established by the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The law requires FBI criminal history checks on individuals before gun purchases in an effort to prevent felons, domestic abusers, drug addicts and those adjudicated as mentally unfit from purchasing a gun.
Clyde noted failures in the background check system that have been highlighted during the COVID-19 gun sales spike:
Typically, if a buyer hasn’t gotten a determination on the background check after three days, then the firearms dealer can sell the weapon anyway.
But during the pandemic, the “government simply ignored that [three-day rule] completely,” Clyde said. Background checks are only good for 30 days. So when results took more than a month, they were already invalid and the prospective buyer had to start the process all over again, Clyde said.
“It is completely broken,” Clyde said of the background check system. “It puts the federal government between the Constitution and the individual in a way that denies the person their individual constitutional right. That’s not right.”
Clyde also wants to do away with taxes on guns and ammunition. It should be interesting to see what comes of his pro-gun passion when he gets to the halls of Congress.
So, a question for you, dear reader: Should background checks be done away with altogether? Is Clyde right in feeling the government is far too involved in gun sales and that background checks as they are currently carried out hinder Second Amendment rights? Or is he way off base. Discuss.