Friday, February 3, 2017

Congress Set to Roll Back Social Security Gun Ban



Congress Set to Roll Back Social Security Gun Ban
Friday, January 27, 2017
Next week, Congress is expected to begin the review and potential repeal of a host of Obama Administration regulations put in place during the last 60 days of Obama’s tenure under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).  Among the regulations specifically targeted for action is the Obama-era Social Security Administration (SSA) gun grab, enacted in the waning days of the anti-gun president’s tenure.

As we reported last month, the rule would for the first time in the nation’s history co-opt the SSA into a gun control apparatus by labeling certain Supplemental Security Income and Disability recipients as “mental defectives” and reporting them to the FBI’s gun ban database. Possession of firearms by these individuals would then become a federal felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The rule, as the SSA itself has admitted, has nothing to do with the individuals’ propensity for violence or self-harm. Rather, the affected persons would be mostly law-abiding individuals singled out because they receive benefits for any of a wide-range of mental disorders (e.g., anxiety, bulimia, obsessive compulsive disorder, etc.) and have a representative payee assigned to help them manage their SSA funds. The Obama White House estimated that some 75,000 people would be reported each year under the new guideline.

While the rule would require reported beneficiaries to be notified of their banned status, it would not give them a chance to defend their suitability to exercise their Second Amendment rights until after they had already been prohibited. At that point, they would be required to file a petition, at their own expense, for “relief from disabilities.” The rule requires petitioners to obtain an expensive and time-consuming mental health evaluation and to disprove risks to the public safety and interest the government never established, or even tried to establish, in the first place.

More than 91,000 comments were submitted on the rule, the overwhelming majority of them in opposition to it. Comments submitted by mental health professionals and advocates for the mentally ill pointed out that the proposal was not supported by evidence or science, added to the stigma of mental illness, and created disincentives for mentally ill persons to seek help and benefits to which they are entitled.

Yet the SSA brushed all these concerns aside in rushing the rule to completion before Barack Obama left office. Confronted with evidence that the rule was illegal, unconstitutional, counter-productive, and would do nothing to further public safety, the SSA simply asserted it was necessary to fulfill a bureaucratic imperative urged on the agency by the Obama Department of Justice.

It’s a shame that the already crowded congressional calendar has to be burdened simply with clearing the minefield Barack Obama intentionally laid to stall and hinder his successor. But it’s encouraging that Congress is taking such swift action to do exactly that.

NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox praised the move in statements to the press on Wednesday. “Congress’ decision to review the Obama administration’s back-door gun grab is a significant step forward in protecting a fundamental constitutional right for law-abiding gun owners,” he said.

You can help by contacting your Congressional representative and urging him or her to vote “yes” on the joint resolution to overturn the SSA’s gun ban rule under the Congressional Review Act. Use the Write Your Federal Lawmakers feature on the NRA-ILA’s website or call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Social Security Administration (SSA)
Gwendolyn S. King was a commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA), a director at the Monsanto Company, and is a founding partner at the Directors' Council.

Note: Christie Hefner is a founding partner at the Directors' Council, and a director at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Center for American Progress Action Fund is an affiliated advocacy group for the Center for American Progress.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a friend of Michael Douglas, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a supporter for the Center for American Progress.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Center for American Progress calls for heightened “Gun Safety, Gun Control” for guns.
Melody C. Barnes was an EVP for the Center for American Progress, a domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, a principal at the Raben Group, and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.
Raben Group is the lobby firm for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and the Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Michael R. Bloomberg is a co-chair for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, and was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Americans for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Warren E. Buffett is an advisory board member for Everytown for Gun Safety, and an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Michael Douglas is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and a friend of George Soros.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Margaret A. Hamburg was a VP at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.
Robert M. Bryant is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and was a deputy director for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Eric H. Holder Jr. is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, and was the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration.
Covington & Burling LLP was the lobby firm for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Americans for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Donald Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
James F. Collins is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and was a senior advisor for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.
James W. Cicconi was a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Mark B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Michael R. Taylor was a deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a VP for public policy for the Monsanto Company.
Gwendolyn S. King was a director at the Monsanto Company, a commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA), and is a founding partner at the Directors' Council.
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and was a funder for the Center for American Progress.
Center for American Progress calls for heightened “Gun Safety, Gun Control” for guns.
Center for American Progress Action Fund is an affiliated advocacy group for the Center for American Progress.
Christie Hefner is and a director at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and a founding partner at the Directors' Council.
Gwendolyn S. King is a founding partner at the Directors' Council, was a director at the Monsanto Company, and a commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA).

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