obama putting SS recipients into NICS system

[middlefinger]

.

The liberty-hating Obama Administration isn’t coming for your guns, except when they are:

Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”

…

But critics — including gun rights activists, mental health experts and advocates for the disabled — say that expanding the list of prohibited gun owners based on financial competence is wrongheaded.

Though such a ban would keep at least some people who pose a danger to themselves or others from owning guns, the strategy undoubtedly would also include numerous people who may just have a bad memory or difficulty balancing a checkbook, the critics argue.

“Someone can be incapable of managing their funds but not be dangerous, violent or unsafe,” said Dr. Marc Rosen, a Yale psychiatrist who has studied how veterans with mental health problems manage their money. “They are very different determinations.”

Roughly 2.7 million of those receiving SSA benefits have mental health concerns, but according to the L.A. Times, 1.5 million others have their finances managed for others reasons, yet would still be targeted by Obama’s gun grab.

This “broad brush” approach appeals to the Obama Administration because it will deny gun rights to the largest possible segment of Americans possible by executive fiat, with little recourse for those affected. It amounts to extortion, telling people they must give up their Second Amendment rights, or else loose government benefits.

http://bearingarms.com/obama-ban-gun...paign=baupdate

[Qtrborecrazy]

Well all the ones that ran to get the free money by calming to be nuts, can now make a excuse why they're not crazy. You reap what you sow.

[pennlineman]

Well all the ones that ran to get the free money by calming to be nuts, can now make a excuse why they're not crazy. You reap what you sow.

I agree with you to a point. Still can't say I'm in favor of this administration casting large nets in an attempt to advance their agenda that is all about control and nothing about safety.

ETA: Be weary of such programs. With some imagination and creativity it won't be long until the parameters are expanded enough to affect you.

[Gunsnwater]

Well all the ones that ran to get the free money by calming to be nuts, can now make a excuse why they're not crazy. You reap what you sow.

What about people who are just old and need someone to do their banking?

[Deleted]

As for the handling of finances... were talking about the elderly.. a special kind of elderly who don't have the mental faculty to pay their bills or make good financial decisions due to age related diminished mental faculties. I might think making life and death decisions and weighing use of force decisions are a little more complicated than paying the trash bill.

As for everyone else collecting mental health SSI.... if you can't perform the most menial of jobs because of your illness, I have to agree that you should not own firearms because you are truly mentally disabled. If you are a sponge collecting on some BS claim... figure out what's more important to you, free money or your guns.

[ChamberedRound]

Well all the ones that ran to get the free money by calming to be nuts, can now make a excuse why they're not crazy. You reap what you sow.

Although there are many who are collecting off the system free of charge courtesy of Obama, for most people SS benefits are an insurance policy that was paid into and not "free money". If one needs to collect, for whatever reason, they are deserving of it, and that IMHO includes SS disability. They should be able to do so without fear of their personal lives being invaded.

The problems I have with this type of tactic are:

- As pennlineman said above, wide nets are never good. Such nets usually wrong more innocent people than catch guilty ones.
- The administration cares nothing about those who are mentally ill, and for them to say otherwise is disingenuous. They're using the mentally ill to advance an agenda, which IMHO is disgusting.
- This type of tactic will eventually make many gun owners hesitant to collect a benefit they have paid into for years and are entitled to, because they'll be afraid any information about their owning guns will be used against them.

IIRC, the law states that NICS is only allowed to keep records for 90 days. However, it was found that this and previous administrations weren't destroying the records, instead keeping and archiving them. If they're still doing so (which is likely), it wouldn't take much to cross-reference the names of the SS beneficiaries against the NICS records. From there, the administration could easily determine the gun owners collecting various SS benefits, and start harassing people or attempting confiscation if they, in their "infinite wisdom" , decide those people shouldn't be able to own guns, Constitution be damned.

[Gunsnwater]

As for the handling of finances... were talking about the elderly.. a special kind of elderly who don't have the mental faculty to pay their bills or make good financial decisions due to age related diminished mental faculties. I might think making life and death decisions and weighing use of force decisions are a little more complicated than paying the trash bill.

As for everyone else collecting mental health SSI.... if you can't perform the most menial of jobs because of your illness, I have to agree that you should not own firearms because you are truly mentally disabled. If you are a sponge collecting on some BS claim... figure out what's more important to you, free money or your guns.

When they come for yours Im thinking your going to be so suprised.

[Yellowfin]

I suppose this is one reason among many to get rid of the SS system entirely. Cash it out now, lump sum checks and be done.

[eyecanshoot]

Our Government cannot handle their own finances.

[pennlineman]

Our Government cannot handle their own finances.

I agree. Now if only we could declare them mentally unfit. Lock them up somewhere where they can't hurt anyone and start over again.