Obama Proposes Massive Gun Ban by Regulation Fiat
*Editor’s note: This is from our Friends at Grassroots North Carolina:
In a “Friday media dump” designed to conceal its actions by releasing them after the press has left town, the Obama administration last week announced its intention to push two regulations which would massively expand the federal gun bans imposed on Americans.
“SEE A SHRINK; LOSE YOUR GUNS”
The first proposal — from HHS — would effectively say that federal health privacy laws (HIPAA) do not apply to the Second Amendment.
This isn’t the first time Obama has stuck his leering eyeballs into Americans’ medical records and private affairs. From its Orwellian government database on Americans’ health records to its voracious seizure of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration can’t trample our personal privacy fast enough.
But HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ efforts to turn over personal mental health information to the government’s gun ban blacklist (NICS) is particularly loathsome.
Not to be outdone in the Sebelius/Holder “Mutt and Jeff act,” Attorney General Eric Holder — currently being pursued for contempt of Congress — intends to seize guns from persons subject to “outpatient commitments (even without a court order) (and) … someone (deemed by some bureaucrat to be) lacking mental responsibility or deemed insane…”
More than 150,000 law-abiding veterans have already lost their constitutional rights — with no due process whatsoever — because they consulted a VA therapist about a traumatic incident in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Balkans.
Under these new regulations, tens of millions of police and firemen with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — or people who, as kids, were diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder — could lose their constitutional rights without any court order, merely because they sought a benefit under a federal program.
And you want to know the hidden agenda behind DOJ’s “commitment” language? We have a member in a rabidly anti-gun state. Many years ago, he was picked up by police and, without the approval of any court, sent to a mental facility overnight for “observation.” The mental facility found no mental problems and promptly released him.
However, many years later, as a result of that state’s anti-gun crackdown (which Holder is now trying to emulate), his name has been sent to the NICS system. He has lost his constitutional rights, and it will cost him tens of thousands of dollars (which he does not have) to get them back.
We believe this is unlawful under current law. But it will probably not be unlawful by the end of Holder’s regulatory proceedings.
What does Sebelius have to say about this? Well, she is surprisingly flip: “There is a strong public safety need for this information to be accessible to the NICS, and some states are currently under-reporting or not reporting certain information to the NICS at all.”
And this from the White House: “…when persons with a mental illness do not receive the treatment they need, the result can be tragedies such as homicide or suicide.”
But herein lies the problem: When Americans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder realize that nothing they say to their therapist is really confidential, they’re not going to be seeking treatment for very long.
But there’s an even more fundamental problem: Last winter, Barack Obama decided that he would devote the first half of 2013 to the destruction of what he and his supporters characterized as “the gun manufacturers’ lobby.” Tens of millions of Americans let their senators and representatives know that they found Obama’s views and Obama’s legislation to be odious and offensive. As a result, it was rejected in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
So now, as has happened so many times before, Obama has set himself “above the law.” What could not be done using constitutional processes is now being slammed through by regulatory fiat.
The Justice Department and HHS regulations will now be submitted for “public comment and review.” But, as with everything else Holder and Sebelius do, this is little more than a sham.
Rather, our efforts will be to get Congress to defund these unconstitutional efforts. And we will start by submitting proposed legislation to friendly senators and representatives.
Oh yes, the Communist/socialist/Marxist/Kenyan is trying to take all your guns away again. And let me guess, Kay Hagan is in on the conspiricy, too. Grassroots North Carolina must be filled with paranoid nincompoops that think the rest of us are as stupid and as crazy as they are.
Only you and your associates may be described as those you decry.
Zon- “Google new New York state gun laws” to read of guns being taken from law abiding citizens. There are many on your side, Zon, who would like nothing better then to impose gun confiscation like they have in Australia.
Come now, Rick. It’s a whole lot easier for a mentally ill person, which is what the requirement addresses, to get a gun than it is to take it away. The majority, like myself, have no problem with law-abiding and mentally sound people owning and possessing a firearm. I think it’s kind of silly and wimpy to carry one around all the time unless it’s your job, but that’s not the point. And there are no government agents coming to get guns. This article is nothing more than nonsense aimed at scarring people into thinking their rights are in jeopardy. [I don’t agree with you but you can’t say I’m not being respectful].
The problem is we have a government that is openly trying to expand what it considers “mentally ill”. These are the people that are trying to label returning veterans and tea party members as possible terror suspects. They’ll keep expanding the definition until they get what they want…”gun free” cities where criminals are free to roam.
I think the definition of ‘mentally ill’ in the old Soviet Union was someone who thought Marxism was a crock. That put you in the Padded Cell.
A government openly expanding the definition of mentally ill so it can come take guns? Really? So what agency is doing all this redefining and gun grabbing? Got any specific cases of citizens having their armaments seized with the associative mental health redefinition?
Really Christian, you can do better than that.
Zon, gun grabs are starting to take place all over this country…specifically in California and New York. Here’s a story about a couple NY residents who are being forced to turn in their guns because they once were prescribed certain medications. Simlar grabs, for various reasons, are happening as we just continue to move inch by inch towards totalitarianism. No, I don’t use that term lightly.
A Form of Gun Confiscation
Zon,
The government changed the definition of “militant”, so that it applies to every male between teen- and middle-age, in order to give the illusion that drone strikes are killing “terr’ists” rather than civilians.
The government has also changed the definitions of “inflation” as measured by CPI in such a way that a family replacing ribeye steak with ground chuck because the price of ribeye has increased no longer is considered “inflationary”.
The government has furthermore changed the “official” measurement of “unemployment” so that it excludes “discouraged workers” and others who have left the workforce. It still calculates the figures using those legacy formulas (look for the number called “U-6”) but the “official” number (U-3) reports lower unemployment when the labor force participation rate decreases.
Given such a pattern of doublespeak, why is it “fearmongering nonsense” to be concerned about the possible abuse of such a subjective term as “lacking mental responsibility”?
Zon,
Do you own a gun?
Yup. A Ruger .357 revolver, a Colt .45 my father carried in WWII, and a Remington 30-06 bolt. Collectively, my brothers and I own a small arsenal. And I shoot them quite well and with regularity. Well, relatively speaking. No one shoots a Colt that old more than 30 yards very well. They are not at my house for reasons I will not go into, however.
I shoot fairly well but will not keep a gun in the house either though I do have a frankish dagger and a katana and a nice truncheon kept under the bed.
Skyler to burglar: “Stop or feel the wrath of my ninja blade!” I like it. 🙂
Once I get my ‘Direwolf’ Trixie off them.