Social Security Admin Proposes Rule to Strip Gun Rights from Beneficiaries

While the scheme to confiscate guns from a certain segment of Social Security recipients may have some justification due to questions about their state of mind, it also appears to be the latest technique to deprive these citizens of due process and Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

First broached last July in what the National Rifle Association is calling the “largest gun grab in American history,” President Obama called on the SSA in January to advance a rulemaking process by which certain individuals receiving benefits would be reported to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the database Federal Firearms Licensees use to determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms and/or explosives. This would effectively make them a prohibited firearms possessor.

Included in the 41-page document is the five-step qualification process that will be used to first identify and then report selected Title II and Title XVI beneficiaries to the Department of Justice.

First, individuals would have to file a claim based on disability. Next, the individual would have to have been adjudicated as having a Mental Disorder Listing and a corresponding primary diagnosis code in Social Security’s records based on that mental impairment.

Further, the individual would have to be an adult over 18 but under retirement age. Finally, after matching the other four conditions, the beneficiary would have to receive their benefits through a representative payee approved by the agency due to being incapable of managing their own payments.

The SSA has reported that as many as 75,000 individuals per year could meet such guidelines. As of March 2016, the agency reports that 65,488,000 people are receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or both, making the estimated number expected to report to NICS comprise 0.11 percent of those currently receiving benefits.

“Considering the relevant regulatory factors, discussed above, however, we believe that there is a reasonable and appropriate fit between the criteria we use to decide whether some of our beneficiaries are disabled and require a representative payee and the Federal mental health prohibitor,” reads the rule.

Those who could possibly be at risk of being reported to NICS would be notified during their adjudication process that they might lose their gun rights depending on the findings. Those who did will be notified in writing and have an opportunity to have their case reviewed during which they would have to provide written statements, current and past mental health status for the past five years as well as a criminal history report.

It is disturbing that a person who may have difficulty managing a checkbook or paying bills could consequently be stripped of their right of self-defense. There is no correlation between the two skills, and it appears to be a simple testing of the waters as the Obama administration seeks novel and illegal ways to accomplish its goal of the disarming of America by bits and pieces. This policy should be thrown out on its merits and its objective to deny due process and clearly stated rights. It is simply more tricks by the Left to have their way by hook or by crook, Constitution be damned.

Source: guns.com