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Social Security moves to block the mentally ill from purchasing guns
The Hill ^ | May 4, 2016 | Tim Devaney

Posted on 05/05/2016 1:51:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is proposing to report people who receive disability benefits and have a mental health condition to the FBI’s background check system.

The proposal, which stems from a memorandum that President Obama issued in 2013, would essentially block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns.

The SSA, which will propose the rule in Thursday's edition of the Federal Register, says it plans to notify disability beneficiaries who might be reported and establish a process for them to appeal their placement in the FBI’s background check system. The proposal is just the latest attempt by the Obama administration to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

Similar efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been met with controversy. Sen. Chuck Grassley

(R-Iowa) has accused the VA of reporting veterans to the FBI simply because they cannot manage their personal finances and must be assigned a fiduciary.

According to Grassley, 99 percent of the people the FBI prohibits from owning guns because they are considered “mentally defective” come from the VA.

Now, the SSA is proposing to take similar precautions with people who receive disability insurance because they are unable to work due to mental health disorders.

“It appears that just like the VA, SSA’s regulatory action will not require the government to first prove that the individual is a danger to self or others,” Grassley wrote last July in a letter to Carolyn Colvin, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

“Is the SSA using the VA’s regulatory standard as a template for reporting names to the [FBI]?” he asked. “If not, in what ways is the SSA’s regulatory scheme different from the VA’s?”

Some of the mental conditions the SSA screens for include schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, personality disorders, intellectual disabilities, anxiety-related disorders, substance addiction disorders and autistic disorders.

Depending on the severity of their condition, people with mental health disorders may qualify for disability insurance.

The public has 60 days to comment about the proposal.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: banglist; obama
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To: eartick

If you are MENTALLY disabled, you should not be buying guns.


21 posted on 05/05/2016 2:28:16 PM PDT by sparklite2 ( "The white man is the Jew of Liberal Fascism." -Jonah Goldberg)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Never, ever see any mental health professional unless it is under a false identity. Pay cash. Otherwise you will be flagged and they will try to take your rights away.


22 posted on 05/05/2016 2:28:47 PM PDT by JimRed (Is it 1776 yet? TERM LIMITS, now and forever! Build the Wall, NOW!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This would exclude most Cruz supporters like 2ndDVet. That’s a bridge too far in my book ;)


23 posted on 05/05/2016 2:34:00 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (DEPORT OBOLA VOTERS)
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To: sparklite2

“My relatives don’t get SSI for mental illness.”

LMAO.....


24 posted on 05/05/2016 2:35:05 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (DEPORT OBOLA VOTERS)
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To: sparklite2

“If you are MENTALLY disabled, you should not be buying guns.”

Have you heard the expression, “The only normal people I know is the one’s I haven’t met”


25 posted on 05/05/2016 2:37:33 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (DEPORT OBOLA VOTERS)
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To: sparklite2
If you are MENTALLY disabled, you should not be buying guns.

If you can't be trusted to be armed you should not be running around loose.

26 posted on 05/05/2016 2:45:54 PM PDT by JimRed (Is it 1776 yet? TERM LIMITS, now and forever! Build the Wall, NOW!)
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To: PAR35

“You don’t BELIEVE in Man-Made Global Warming/Cooling/Drying/Raining/etc?”

You must be “Mentally Ill!”

No guns for you!


27 posted on 05/05/2016 2:46:20 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Right now this is SSA Disability and a Mental Illness. When to they just get all our medical data via Obamacare and just go for the Mental Illness if you are on SSI or expand it to the population, regardless of SSI etc. Remember incrementalism is a hallmark of the Statist. So you go on a mild Valium because your boss is an A-hole and your no longer valid to purchase anything or own it... Hmmm...


28 posted on 05/05/2016 2:54:54 PM PDT by taildragger (Not my Monkey, not my Circus...)
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To: BitWielder1
How is this any of SSA's business? If you apply to take any of the SSA largess due to a disabling mental condition, then you have to dance to their tune. SS disability applications are extensive and require lots of documentation from doctors. The main problem with this is it's still not an adjudicated process in front of a judge where a person is declared incompetent. It's more of a self-admission process and overseen by the administrative law process set up by the SSA. Doesn't meet Constitutional muster for due process, IMNSHO.
29 posted on 05/05/2016 2:56:44 PM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is HEARTBREAKING. I picture vets with serious PTSD will no longer be able to seek treatment out of fear that they would have to live without guns their whole lives. This is WRONG.

There are some people with brain dysfunction who should not have access to guns, but many more who should have that right.

I believe only those with clear intellectual disability severe enough to not understand the dangers of a weapon should be forbidden to own guns. As far as people with “mental illnesses” (such a stupid name): only those in CURRENT danger to themselves or others should be kept temporarily from weapons.


30 posted on 05/05/2016 3:01:39 PM PDT by Yaelle (Tinkerbelle glittering up the runway for Trump Force One!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Maybe this will reduce social security disability claims.


31 posted on 05/05/2016 3:18:26 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

ROFL!! good!


32 posted on 05/05/2016 3:27:03 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: BitWielder1

“How is this any of SSA’s business?”

Same way health insurance is Internal Revenue’s business.


33 posted on 05/05/2016 4:18:26 PM PDT by mumblypeg (Reality is way more complicated than the internet. That's why I'm here.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

But a guy who thinks he’s a chick, or vice versa, gets pumped full of hormones, and is invited into our military


34 posted on 05/05/2016 4:21:18 PM PDT by mumblypeg (Reality is way more complicated than the internet. That's why I'm here.)
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To: sparklite2
If you are MENTALLY disabled, you should not be buying guns.
Define "mentally" disabled.
35 posted on 05/05/2016 4:22:56 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I am outraged. This is a gross broach of due process and inexcusable government intrusion into privacy. Their own HIPPA statutes make this unlawful.

On the other hand, maybe it will pry a few mouths off the government nipple. There are many, many people that have gone on the SS gravy train claiming mental heath issues that lied or deceived to get there.


36 posted on 05/05/2016 4:23:58 PM PDT by dangerdoc ((this space for rent))
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To: sparklite2
I thought the Brady Bunch was kaput at FR.

Guess I was wrong.

37 posted on 05/05/2016 4:44:09 PM PDT by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: dangerdoc

So which side are you on, Hamlet?


38 posted on 05/05/2016 4:45:02 PM PDT by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: Bratch
Define "mentally" disabled.

Believe in God? Mentally disabled!
Vote for Bush or Trump? Mentally disabled!
Go to Church? Mentally disabled!
Veteran? Mentally disabled!
Fly and American Flag? Mentally Disabled!
Own a gun? Mentally disabled!
Not on food stamps? Mentally disabled!

39 posted on 05/05/2016 5:43:07 PM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!)
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To: Bratch

If you can’t function without having the govt pay for your mental shortcomings, you’re mentally disabled. And should not be able to buy firearms. Using SSI criteria is putting the definition off onto people who, true or not, claim they can’t function to the extent taxpayers have to support them. It’s actually a pretty neat idea.


40 posted on 05/05/2016 6:21:40 PM PDT by sparklite2 ( "The white man is the Jew of Liberal Fascism." -Jonah Goldberg)
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