With Republican Representatives undertaking efforts to repeal Obama’s Social Security gun ban, Bloomberg is reporting the ban “was a reaction to school shootings like the 2012 Sandy Hook attack.”
They did not explain what a ban on gun ownership for Social Security recipients has to do with Sandy Hook, or how it might have prevented 20-year-old Adam Lanza from driving stolen guns to the school to carry out a heinous attack.
According to Bloomberg:
The rule Republicans want to reverse requires the Social Security Administration to report any beneficiaries deemed incapable of managing their benefits to the national background check system, which the FBI uses to determine eligibility to buy firearms. …The original rule was a reaction to school shootings like the 2012 Sandy Hook attack.
They quote Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA-3) speaking in favor of the ban on Wednesday, saying: “Far too many have lost their lives to preventable gun violence. This rule is intended to keep firearms out of the hands of those suffering from severe mental illness. That’s a common-sense idea that I think we all should agree on.”
Representative David Cicilline (D-RI-1) added that Republican efforts to repeal the ban were “shameful.”
Breitbart News previously reported that the Social Security gun ban began to be fashioned behind closed doors in the summer of 2015 and was finalized just before Christmas 2016. It allows the Social Security Administration (SSA) to bar certain beneficiaries from buying guns based on a need for help in managing their finances.
Beneficiaries catch the SSA’s attention by having their checks sent to a third party for management and this results in an investigation into the mental status of the Social Security recipient. That investigation can result in a SSA ruling that certain beneficiaries are mentally defunct, thereby barring them from from firearm purchases.
In July 2015 the Los Angeles Times reported that as many as “4.2 million” Social Security beneficiaries receive help managing their finances. That means there are literally millions of beneficiaries who could potentially be barred from purchasing firearms, should the Social Security gun ban remain.
It is hard to see how any of this has anything to do with the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook attack.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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