Paper: Sandy Hook Attack Justifies Social Security Gun Ban

On February 10 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used the example of the Sandy Hook Elementary attack to argue for preserving Barack Obama’s Social Security gun ban.

House Republicans have already voted to repeal the gun ban and a repeal is under consideration in the Senate.

The Post-Dispatch reports that the Social Security gun ban “was part of an effort by the Obama administration to strengthen gun control laws after the 2012 school massacre in Newtown, Conn.” That ban authorizes the Social Security Administration to investigate Social Security beneficiaries who require third party assistance in managing their finances.

If said beneficiaries are found to be mentally deficient their names are turned over to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), where they are barred from passing a background check to acquire a gun at retail.

In short, the Social Security gun ban means elderly citizens who need help balancing their checkbook are at risk of losing their Second Amendment rights.

What does this have to do with the Sandy Hook attack? The gunman in the Sandy Hook attack was 20-years old and he did not buy his guns at retail. In fact, he did not buy his guns at all. Rather, he stole them. Adam Lanza stole guns from his mother then shot and killed her before going to the elementary school where he killed another 26 innocents with the stolen firearms.

Although this has nothing to do with the Social Security gun ban, the Post-Dispatch used a bugged-eyed photograph of Lanza staring into the camera as the main photograph for the story. Such reporting distracts from the fact that the Social Security gun ban poses a real threat to the Second Amendment rights of elderly citizens who may simply need help balancing their checkbooks during various, difficult times in their lives.

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.