U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde’s Athens gun store, Clyde Armory, was enrolled in a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms monitoring program for retailers that have been found to sell large numbers of guns linked to crimes.
The New York Times recently reported that, in April, Clyde railed against the Demand 2 program during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. But what he did not disclose is that Clyde Armory was enrolled in Demand 2 in 2020 and 2021 because ATF agents found that more than 25 guns sold there had been used in crimes within the previous three years of their purchase.
A gun control group discovered Clyde Armory’s involvement in Demand 2 through an open records request. According to the Times:
The time element is critical. Guns traced to crimes within three years of their purchase are considered weapons that have a brief “time to crime,” a serious warning sign.
“The program is intended to put a small percentage of dealers, who are selling a significant number of guns with a short time-to-crime, on notice,” said Joshua Scharff, legal counsel for Brady. “It’s also an important way to more easily trace a greater number of guns that might be used in crimes.”
Dealers assigned to the program are required to file detailed annual and quarterly reports on pre-owned guns sold to them by nonlicensed dealers or through consignments.
Only 3 percent of the roughly 80,000 stores, manufacturers and pawn shops licensed by the federal government are currently enrolled in the program, according to A.T.F. statistics compiled by Brady.
Clyde, a Republican and a Jackson County resident, no longer represents part of Clarke County after redistricting in 2022, but his gun store is located on Atlanta Highway. Since taking office in 2021, he has made headlines for calling the Jan. 6 insurrection a “normal tourist visit” despite being photographed barricading doors, and for handing out AR-15 lapel pins to colleagues after mass shootings.
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