GOP Congressman Compares Gun Registration To Rwandan Genocide

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
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Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Thursday took to Facebook to rail against stricter gun control measures — and, along the way, compared a national gun registry to the genocide in Rwanda. 

“The 2nd Amendment is (or should be) equal to the 1st Amendment and the 4th Amendment and all of the others,” Duncan wrote on Facebook. “Ask yourselves why it is under attack? Ask yourselves about a National gun registry database and how that might be used and why it is so wanted by progressives.”

Enter the Rwanda comparison. “Read about the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu and Tutsi tribes,” Duncan continued. “Read that all Tutsi tribe members were required to register their address with the Hutu government and that this database was used to locate Tutsi for slaughter at the hands of the Hutu. (Since the government had the names and addresses of nearly all Tutsis living in Rwanda (remember, each Rwandan had an identity card that labeled them Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa) the killers could go door to door, slaughtering the Tutsis.”

Duncan wrote that he used this particular example “to warn that national databases can be used with evil consequences.”

While the National Rifle Association has long warned that expanding background checks would lead to a national gun registry, no such legislation has been proposed. In a roundtable discussion that aired Thursday on MSNBC, Vice President Joe Biden said the push for gun restrictions will not create a registry. “So this idea that there is a national registry, there is no place in the federal government where you can go, not a single place, and find out everybody who owns a gun.”

Duncan’s comments come as the Senate voted to begin debate on gun legislation, including a deal on background checks for gun sales proposed by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Read Duncan’s full Facebook post here.

h/t The Hill.

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