On January 25 Gun Owners of America executive director emeritus Larry Pratt told Breitbart News the FBI’s arbitrary halt to processing appeals for background check denials is more evidence that “background checks are not constitutional” to begin with.
Pratt intimated that the idea that the government can wedge itself between the people and the exercise of fundamental rights was foreign to the minds of the framers.
He said:
Hopefully we will learn what should have been the lesson from the beginning–these background checks are not constitutional.
When a fundamentally protected right–like the Second Amendment–is placed in the hands of the government, they will decide whether or not a sale can be made, and who can own, and things like that, then we must realize we have all the sudden given away the store. And look what happens under an administration like that of Obama; you give him an inch and he takes a mile.
He said Americans must open their eyes to the inherent danger of trusting government with our rights. He said the FBI’s halt on processing appeals on background denials should have Americans asking, “If they can do this, how much more can they do?”
Pratt addressed what he sees as the way forward on background checks, saying:
The whole National Instant Background Check System (NICS) apparatus needs to be defunded. And once the examiners and analysts tied to that apparatus have been on unemployment for a while, perhaps they’ll understand that they need to do their job. And now I’m dreaming, but maybe the Republicans will actually step up and do this.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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