WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, Congressman Andrew Clyde (GA-09) issued the following statement in response to the Safer Communities Act.

“For weeks, lawmakers either overcome by emotion or fixated on disarming our nation have weaponized tragedies in order to advance illogical, ineffective, and illegal gun-grabbing proposals. Yet instead of standing strong in the fight to protect Americans’ Second Amendment freedoms, Democrats and Republicans in both chambers have woefully abandoned these enumerated rights by passing this reckless piece of legislation. I’m deeply disappointed in these lawmakers for choosing political considerations over the preservation of our Constitution, as this bill strips law-abiding Americans of their Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment liberties. 

“Beyond the massive expansion of Medicaid and $100 million handout for FBI salaries buried in the bill, this legislation bans military service-age adults from fully exercising their constitutional rights until the age of 21. Furthermore, this severely-misguided measure institutes so-called ‘red flag laws,’ which strip citizens of their due process rights by allowing the government to confiscate their property—without any crime committed or rightful day in court. Subsequently, that individual will be left to hire a lawyer at their own expense in order to prove their innocence and retrieve their property.

“While the results of this legislation will not take some of the guns from all of the people, it will take all of the guns from some of the people—threatening the safety of families, communities, and businesses across the country. Make no mistake, this bill is not a compromise; it is gun control, plain and simple. Regrettably, I believe this is just the first step in anti-Second Amendment lawmakers’ plan to achieve their utopia of an unarmed America—a world in which our precious liberties are demolished and our Republic as we know it is dismantled.  I refuse to allow their disturbing fantasy to become a living nightmare for us and so I voted NO, reinforcing my words with action in defense of Americans’ unalienable right to keep and bear arms.”