South Carolina’s Rep. Jeff Duncan (R) warned Thursday that attempts by the U.S. government to impose comprehensive background checks on gun buyers will lead to a wholesale slaughter of American citizens akin to “the Rwandan genocide.” According to Think Progress, Duncan made the claims on his Facebook page.

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” the Congressman wrote. “Expanded background checks and gun show requirements would have had NO effect on stopping Aurora, Sandy Hook or Tucson. Nor would they have any effect on the violent gun-crime in Chicago.”

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If Congress implements tighter controls on sales of firearms to people with previous mental health issues or run-ins with the law, Duncan said, it is because liberals are planning to create a database of Americans they want to kill.

“The 2nd Amendment is (or should be) equal to the 1st Amendment and the 4th Amendment and all of the others,” he wrote. “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.”

He portentously warned, “Read about the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. 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.”

“I use this example to warn that national databases can be used with evil consequences,” he said, then one line later claimed that “Preying on the fears of the American citizenry is not good governance.”

On Thursday, the Senate voted to allow debate on a brace of gun safety regulations including expanded background checks, limits on magazine size and grants allocating funds for increased security in schools.

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[Image courtesy of the Flickr account of Rep. Jeff Duncan]