The Fight to Ensure the Right to Bear Arms for Social Security Recipients Continues

The Fight to Ensure the Right to Bear Arms for Social Security Recipients Continues

Bearing Arms - Tuesday February 14, 2017

by Pamela Jablonski

Since August of 2015, Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has taken a stance against the Social Security Administration’s action to provide names of Social Security recipients to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Neil W. McCabe, from Breitbart, has confirmed that Senator Manchin will continue his support by voting to overturn this overreach of the SSA. This will eliminate pending restrictions of the right to bear arms on some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

In a statement released on Manchin’s website, the senator said:

As a law-abiding gun owner, hunter, card-carrying life member of the NRA and Second Amendment advocate, I have always supported a West Virginian’s right to bear arms. This potential overreach by the Social Security Administration is a blatant infringement on the Second Amendment rights of millions of Americans. The assumption by the SSA that seniors and individuals with certain disabilities are a threat to society is both inaccurate and misguided and should not be grounds to revoke someone’s constitutional rights. That is why I joined my colleagues in strongly urging the Administration to end efforts to move forward with this proposal.

It’s important to point out that people need to do their research and stop jumping to dangerous conclusions that are not based in fact. Disability status based upon age or various diseases does not equate to a person being inherently dangerous to themselves or anyone else.

Under a law enacted during the Obama Administration, the private information that the SSA could turnover would reside within the NICS database, which currently houses the names of individuals prohibited from purchasing or carrying a firearm. It is a violation of an individual’s rights and privacy for the SSA to make their own determination about those recipients’ future actions based solely upon receiving certain benefits without the due process of the law. Once a person’s information is entered into the NICS database, they will immediately be deemed a threat to society. This will stand without any additional proof, other than the SSA’s determination – of having a propensity for or history of a violent past, present, or future.

Fortunately repealing this infringement upon millions of Americans’ right to bear arms seems to have gained strength during this new Congress.

The bill is currently awaiting movement in the Senate, where it currently resides after having passed through the House.

The post The Fight to Ensure the Right to Bear Arms for Social Security Recipients Continues appeared first on Bearing Arms.

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