Obama pushes new gun control law that could take the right to bear arms away from 4.2 million Social Security recipients
- Law could red flag during background checks owners who lack the mental faculties to handle their own money, a safeguard already used at the VA
A new regulation proposed by the Obama administration could lead to 4.2 million Americans losing their right to own a gun.
The rule would target Social Security recipients who've already been deemed to have 'marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease' during background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
If the SSA decides who falls into this category the way the Veterans Administration already does for background checks--as anyone declared incompetent to handle their own payments--over four million Americans will lose their right to buy a gun.
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Gun control: A new regulation proposed by the Obama administration could lead to 4.2 million Americans losing their right to own a gun
The Social Security Administration has never before participated in the background check system, but 4.2 million is the number of recipients whose monthly benefits are managed by 'representative payees,' reports the Los Angeles Times.
While it's seen as a method off fixing holes that remain in the background check system, opponents say it's far too broad a ban.
It would affect people like Steven Overman, a 30-year-old former Marine who suffered serious head trauma from a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2007.
Overman, an avid hunter, was deemed 100 percent disabled by the VA and subsequently learned he had to give up his guns.
The Social Security ban would potentially affect others like Overman, who is working with a lawyer to get his guns back according to the LA Times.
4.2 million: The rule would target Social Security recipients who've already been deemed to have 'marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease' during background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)
The proposal is part of the president's gun control push made in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Obama has been called upon throughout his presidency to help soothe the pain of communities mourning gun-related tragedies.
He issued a powerful call for national unity in Tucson, Arizona, after a 2011 shooting that severely injured then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. His voice was filled with emotion in 2012 when he spoke at a prayer vigil for the elementary school students and adults killed in Newtown.
He's also addressed grief-stricken communities in Fort Hood, Texas and Aurora, Colorado, as well as his own current hometown of Washington.
The morning after last month's Charleston church shooting, Obama expressed his frustration with the frequency of such tragedies.
'I've had to make statements like this too many times,' he said. 'Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.'
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