Obama said that his top priority for his remaining time in office is gun control.
He’s already done it to our military veterans — getting the dysfunctional Veterans Administration to take guns away from veterans deemed “mentally unfit”. (See “Obama regime prohibits disabled veterans from owning firearms and ammunition”)
Now, Obama is extending the same BOHICA “courtesy” to Social Security recipients.
Alan Zarembo reports for The Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2015, that Obama plans to ban millions of Social Security recipients from owning guns, as “part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., to strengthen gun control, including by plugging holes in the background check system.”
For the links to the posts FOTM has published on the Sandy Hook false-flag, go here.
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), with a database of more than 13 million records, is used to prevent gun sales to felons, fugitives, drug addicts, illegal immigrants, domestic abusers, dishonorably discharged service members, and others. The law requires gun stores to run the names of prospective buyers through the computerized background check system before every sale.
Already, Obama’s Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has expanded the category of “others” to include veterans who are incompetent to manage their pension or disability payments, and are assigned a fiduciary. Conservative groups have denounced the policy as an excuse to strip veterans of their gun rights.
Social Security has never participated in the background check system. Now, Obama means to change that by including some 4.2 million Social Security (SS) recipients who “lack mental capacity” — whose monthly disability payments are handled by others (“representative payees”) due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”
Critics — including gun rights activists, mental health experts and advocates for the disable — say that although such a ban would keep people who pose a danger to themselves or others from owning guns, the strategy undoubtedly would also include people who may just have a bad memory or difficulty balancing a checkbook.
Yale psychiatrist Dr. Marc Rosen, who has studied how veterans with mental health problems manage their money, points out that “Someone can be incapable of managing their funds but not be dangerous, violent or unsafe. They are very different determinations.” Rosen said some veterans may avoid seeking help for mental health problems out of fear that they would be required to give up their guns.
Ari Ne’eman, a member of the National Council on Disability (NCD), said the NCD would oppose any policy that used assignment of a representative payee as a basis to take any fundamental right from people with disabilities.
Steven Overman, a 30-year-old former Marine who lives in Virginia, said he “didn’t know the VA could take away your guns” and that his case demonstrates the flaws of judging gun safety by the yardstick of financial competence.
After his Humvee hit a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2007, Overman was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury that weakened his memory and cognitive ability, and was deemed 100% disabled by the VA. In 2012, after declaring Overman incompetent and making his wife his fiduciary, the VA reported him to the background check system. So Overman surrendered his guns to his mother and began working with a lawyer to get them back because he enjoys target shooting and has never felt he is a danger to himself or others.
More than a year and a half after Overman filed his challenge, the VA finally lifted its incompetence ruling, allowing his removal from the background check system. Overman, who hasn’t worked since leaving the military, said he and a friend are now thinking of opening a gunsmith business.
In the case of the proposed Social Security Administration policy to take guns from SS recipients, what is even more of a concern is that the agency has been drafting its policy outside of public view.
Even the National Rifle Association (NRA) was unaware of it. Told about the initiative, the NRA issued a statement from its chief lobbyist, Chris W. Cox, saying: “If the Obama administration attempts to deny millions of law-abiding citizens their constitutional rights by executive fiat, the NRA stands ready to pursue all available avenues to stop them in their tracks.”
On April 23, 2015, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) introduced a bill to change the VA’s gun policy. H.R. 2001, the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, would require a court to determine that somebody poses a danger before being reported to the background check system. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
H/t FOTM’s maziel
~Eowyn
