NRA Response To Social Security Proposal

The NRA-ILA issued an alert on Saturday after the story broke about the proposal to include 4.2 million Social Security recipients in the NICS database as prohibited persons. This proposal from the Social Security Administration has been traced back to a Presidential Memorandum issued in 2013. That memorandum, issued post-Newtown, ordered Federal agencies to improve the availability of relevant records for inclusion into the NICS database.

The alert does not explain why it took the SSA over two and a half years to come forward with this proposal. Moreover, the alert notes that other Federal agencies were named in the memorandum and might be expected to add even more names to the prohibited list.

There are links in the alert to communicate with your legislators.

From the NRA-ILA:

As the L.A. Times reported on July 18, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is currently developing a program to strip the Second Amendment Rights of over four million Americans currently receiving SSA benefits through a “representative payee.”  Not only would this amount to the largest gun grab in American history, but according to the published report, would take place without any due process protections for recipients, amounting to a nullification of Second Amendment rights for millions of Americans who don’t pose a threat to themselves or anyone else.
This new program appears to have been instigated by the SSA in response to a memorandum issued by Obama in January of 2013 which directed all federal agency executives to “improve the availability of records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).” This memorandum required all agency heads to submit to the Department of Justice (DOJ) a plan for “sharing all relevant Federal records” for submission to the NICS.

Take Action Now to Stop the Largest Gun Grab in American History

Are you a prohibited person? A new, unconstitutional Social Security Administration program will add over 4 million Americans to the prohibited persons list without due process. Contact your lawmakers today. Ask if you’re one of the 4 million.
Evidently, Obama’s SSA bureaucrats read “all relevant Federal records” to mean all Social Security recipients who have a “representative payee” assigned to their accounts to help them manage their payments and receipts. Obviously, many individuals swept up in this egregious case of bureaucratic over-reach would not otherwise be prohibited from owning, possessing, or acquiring firearms under federal law.
The federal prohibitions against acquiring or possessing firearms apply to those “adjudicated as a mental defective,” among others. The term “adjudication,” however, refers to a determination made after a judicial-type process that includes various due process protections. In no case does the federal law describe or contemplate the type of prohibition by bureaucratic fiat exercised by the SSA in developing its guidelines for those with “representative payees” assigned to their accounts.
But SSA is not alone in this directive. The memorandum names several agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Transportation, and “such other agencies or offices as the Chair may designate.” Potentially, bureaucrats in all these agencies could be working hard to identify and forward “all relevant Federal records,” to the NICS pursuant to the Obama mandate.
In total, this program could easily grow to include many more millions of Americans who have any connection to the Federal government through the various agencies named in the memorandum.
Unfortunately, this fits a pattern of abuse within the Obama Administration which is clearly hell-bent on destroying the Second Amendment in any way possible. As we reported previously (here and here), the Veterans Administration (VA) has already implemented a similar program to designate veterans as “prohibited persons”  when they have a fiduciary assigned to administer their VA benefits. Like the SSA program described above, the VA procedures are also devoid of significant due process protections or any requirement that the beneficiary be found a danger to self or others. According to the L.A Times article, 177,000 vets have been swept into NICS with the bureaucratic short-cut.
The implications of this policy are too far reaching to fathom at present. Social Security is one of the more prolific and relied upon Federal programs in American history. That Obama’s directive could so easily be implemented within the SSA suggests that bureaucrats could effectively cloak such a program in any agency within the growing leviathan that is the federal government.
Please call or write your members of congress and demand that Obama’s attempts to implement the largest gun grab in American history be stopped in its tracks.  You can contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives at 202-225-3121. You can write your lawmakers by using our “Write Your Lawmakers” tool below.

4 thoughts on “NRA Response To Social Security Proposal”

  1. Well I can certainly see why SSA would want to target this segment of the population and take away any guns they own. Statistically, the number of violent crimes in American by these citizens is probably at an all time high. God only knows what kind of mayhem they could inflict on America if their guns are not removed from their households. After all, this is public assistance and if legislators expect recipients to pee in a cup to get food stamps or buy certain "luxury" foods, what's so wrong about this in exchange for their benefits? .

  2. I really wish the NRA and others would replace the word "gun" with "rights" when using the phrase "gun grab" or "gun grabbers". I really think "rights grab" or "rights grabbers" is more powerful and appropriate.

  3. As long as Communists and Rinos control the government I see no movement to advance laws to reinforce the meaning and purpose of the 2nd Amendment, and to correct laws that violate it. The criminal Obama has followed a Communist doctrine, and behaved in lawless and subversive manner even before he was elected to President. Obama has consistently violated the Constitution in order achieve his goals of a Communist United States It is also clear that the so called independent and "co-equal" branches of government have become subservient to Obama. Therefore, Americans will face a number of choices of how they may wish to live and behave under the thumb of and “Un-American” Communist Obama regime. . As the US moves increasingly faster towards a totalitarian government based on Communist doctrine, it is becoming evident that Americans will face three choices.

    The first possible choice would be to comply with in-effect laws, regulations, and executive orders that violate the Constitution, including, firearm registration schemes, and the banning and confiscation of classes and types of weapons and ammunition. The Obama regime has enacted laws that strip certain Veterans of their 2nd Amendment rights, and proposes a new plan to strip Social Security Disability recipients of their 2nd Amendment rights. Also, some states ban classes of weapons, and the federal banning of the 7N6 and M-855 ammunition types falls into that category. In other words, one may become a lapdog and passively comply with the totalitarian regime. To become a lapdog will embolden any regime to suspend more rights, and enact harsher responses to noncompliance. This is a safe choice for quislings, the infirm, and elderly. Most Americans, and people in general will likely choose this action.

    The second possible choice is commonly known as civil disobedience, where one does not comply with the demands of the regime, and does so by resisting, such as not complying with firearm register or turn in laws as in Connecticut and New York. This is also often an intermediate step, with people advancing to choice 3 should a regime take heavy oppressive action, such as mass arrests, executions, prison camps, and confiscations of property and firearms. History has shown that those who chose a path similar to this often perished in concentration camps, assassination pits, and gas chambers.

    The third possible choice is when one chooses to become an active and aggressive participant in the effort to restore the Constitution and to remove those lawmakers who no longer respect and obey the Constitution. Should elections be suspended and a Dictatorship established, removal of these despots by any and all means necessary may be required. This third choice will require great sacrifices, and careful and thoughtful understanding of the laws and consequences, as well as ones physical, financial, and domestic status. The Obama regime has classified those that would choose the 2nd and 3rd choices as "right wing extremists," "insurgents, "and "domestic terrorists.”. Look to Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia for how this works. In reality, it is the Communist Obama regime and its supporters that are the "extremists," "insurgents, "and "domestic terrorists." One must study the history of this great nation, the reasons for its founding and how the colonists and the young struggling government defied a larger and stronger master. The Colonists were fighting against the unjust laws, and unjust taxation of the oppressive masters England and King George. The peoples fight against tyranny and abuses of natural law triggered a revolt that set in motion the creation of the world’s greatest nation, the United States of America.

  4. Continued,
    To advance to this third stage of would mean revolution, and therefore customary judicial intervention and legal council would no longer exist. One must understand that should they take up arms against their government, no matter how oppressive and criminal it may be, they would be classified as terrorists and likely executed if captured. The nation’s founders understood the consequences of their actions, knowing that fighting for freedom and liberty and against oppression and tyranny was necessary if their small colony was to survive. We live free (sort of) today because the colonists made this third choice.
    Can this 239 year old republic remain the world’s champion of liberty, freedom and democratic values, or will Communist doctrine fostered by the Democratic National Committee replace the Constitution as the standard for government restraint? Today Americans face the same kinds of unjust and oppressive government as the colonists did in the latter half of 1700. But do todays Americans possesses the same strengths and bearing as did those colonists who chose to fight their English masters?

    This essay does not condone, approve, encourage, or suggest any actions. It is a reflection upon the current situation, history, and how American citizens may react when faced with a government that violates the nation’s laws and acts against the natural and God given laws applicable to mankind.

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