RAND PAUL PUSHES BILL TO BLOCK OBAMA'S SOCIAL SECURITY GUN BAN
BY AWR HAWKINS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Senator has introduced legislation to stop President Barack Obama from imposing a stealthy gun ban on an estimated 75,000 Social Security beneficiaries.
Breitbart News previously reported last July that Obama’s gun ban would hit Social Security beneficiaries who are labeled as having “mental health” issues. That category is so broad that it includes people who need help to handle personal finances.
Obama added this gun ban into the executive gun controls he announced in January.
The White House explained that the Social Security Administration would execute the ban by reporting beneficiaries with a “mental health issue” to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). This, in turn, would bar them from purchasing a gun.
The reporting would happen “in consultation with the Department of Justice” and would “cover appropriate records of the approximately 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment.”
Senator Paul has now introduced legislation to shield beneficiaries from losing gun rights simply because they need help balancing a checkbook.
Paul’s legislation–Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act–explicitly “prevents the Social Security Administrator from reporting individuals to NICS unless [that] individual has been adjudicated as mentally incompetent.”
In other words, it makes a finding of mental incompetence the result of a process rather than a proclamation. This protects the due process rights of each individual who might otherwise have simply been proclaimed mentally incompetent.
Moreover, even after the proper process has been followed, Paul’s bill requires the Attorney General to certify each adjudication–which is one more way of taking pains to ensure the protection of individual rights. And once an adjudication is lifted or absolved, rights are restored to the individual.
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SEE ALSO: https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/press/sen-rand-paul-introduces-protecting-gun-rights-and-due-process-act; REPUBLISHED:
04.14.16
Sen. Rand Paul Introduces Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul today introduced the Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act, which would provide protection for gun owners by ensuring due process rights are upheld in the event an individual’s eligibility is questioned and reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
“The Obama administration is at it again, and this time they are unilaterally stripping gun rights from our nation’s veterans and seniors. The Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act will provide necessary protection for gun-owning Americans, and ultimately ensure that the Second Amendment is not infringed upon,” Sen. Paul said.
The Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act has gained support from the following organizations: the Gun Owners of America and the National Association of Gun Rights.
“Senator Paul’s ‘Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act’ will do much to block President Obama’s ability to strip the Second Amendment rights from law-abiding gun owners, veterans, and senior citizens without due process. Furthermore, it would restore rights for thousands of law-abiding gun owners, veterans, and senior citizens who were stripped of their Second Amendment rights without getting their day in court. Once again this bill shows that Senator Paul is one of Washington’s leading advocates for gun owners and the Second Amendment,” said the National Association of Gun Rights.
To read the legislation in its entirety, click HERE. Top-line bullet points and background information on the Protecting Gun Rights and Due Process Act can be found HERE or below.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE PROTECTING GUN RIGHTS AND DUE PROCESS ACT
- Prohibits the sale or disposition of a firearm or ammunition to an individual that has been adjudicated as mentally incompetent or committed to a psychiatric hospital. Adjudication requires findings by a judicial officer or court and the individual receives notice to participate with counsel.
- Within 90 days, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs must review and remove from NICS any veteran that has not been adjudicated as mentally incompetent. The Attorney General will certify that the removal of names has taken place.
- Prevents the Social Security Administrator from reporting individuals to NICS unless individual has been adjudicated as mentally incompetent. Attorney General will conduct a yearly review to certify reported names have necessary documentation.
- Attorney General must certify a state’s report indicating a person had been adjudicated as mentally incompetent prior to inclusion to NICS.
- All individuals considered to no longer be adjudicated as mentally incompetent will be notified and have their rights restored.
