NRA Supports Legislation To Stop Obama Administration From Denying Constitutional Rights of Millions of Veterans and Social Security Recipients

	NRA NEWS RELEASE
National Rifle Association • 11250 Waples Mill Road • Fairfax, VA 22030
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 5, 2015	FOR MORE INFORMATION NRA Public Affairs (703) 267-3820
NRA Supports Legislation To Stop Obama Administration From Denying Constitutional Rights of Millions of Veterans and Social Security Recipients
FAIRFAX, Va. -- The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) today announced its support for legislation that would protect the constitutional rights of millions of veterans and social security recipients. The Mental Health and Safe Communities Act, sponsored by U.S. Senator John Cornyn, contains provisions that would stop the Obama administration's efforts to deny millions of veterans and social security recipients their Second Amendment rights without due process. "The NRA is fighting to stop the Obama administration from denying millions of veterans and social security recipients their Second Amendment rights for no other reason than they want assistance in managing their financial affairs," said Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA executive director. "We thank Senator Cornyn for his leadership in standing up to the Obama administration and introducing legislation that will take meaningful steps toward fixing America's broken mental health system." President Obama's Department of Veterans Affairs has denied more than100,000 veterans and dependents their Second Amendment rights because they use a "fiduciary" to manage their benefits. Veterans who the agency determines need help administering their compensation are then labeled "mental defectives" and reported to the National Instant background Check System (NICS), which prohibits them from purchasing or possessing firearms.  The process of assigning a fiduciary does not require the VA to consider whether a veteran poses a danger to himself or others. In addition, the Social Security Administration announced that it is moving forward with a proposal that would strip the Second Amendment rights of more than 4.2 million people, by reporting social security recipients who use a "representative payee" to help them manage their benefits to the NICS. Details of the legislation include: Creating significant new due process protections that will stop the Social Security Administration and other agencies from simply defining as "prohibited persons" those who meet arbitrary criteria such as having a representative payee assigned to their account. Including a new due process procedure that will ensure that veterans who have been put into NICS will have the opportunity to have their cases individually reviewed and those who are not a danger to themselves or others will have their rights restored. Providing much needed mechanisms of recognizing the relief from disability provisions of state law, bringing uniformity to the system of who should have their rights restored after state procedures which consider all factors in individual cases. Granting immediate relief to those who have been inappropriately swept into NICS by bureaucratic over-reach and other procedures that don't include the due process protections described in the bill.
-NRA- Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America's oldest civil rights and sportsmen's group. More than five million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation's leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services. Be sure to follow the NRA on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalRifleAssociation and on Twitter @NRA.

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Contact information: Amy Hunter, NRA-ILA (National Rifle Association of America. Institute for Legislative Action), 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030

PSA- Cyber Alert!!!

Just got word on this one at work this morning... Be aware!!!

I want to bring your attention to a potentially dangerous phishing email that contains a malicious link.  If you received any email from any of these email addresses: 

USAA.WEB.Acces.Activity@usaa.com

USAA.WEB.restricted@usaa.com

USAA.WEB.SECURE.Customer@usaa.com   

And the Subject Line is:  "Your USAA Account Computer/Device Preferences Notification." 

DO NOT OPEN the email.  DELETE THE EMAIL IMMEDIATELY.  Then DELETE the email from your Deleted Items folder.  The email contains a malicious link that can attack email and other Information Technology systems.

NRA Fact Checks Politifact on Social Security Administration's Gun Grab

NRA Fact Checks Politifact on Social Security Administration Gun Grab

A recent Politifact article attempted to fact check news reports about the Obama Administration's effort to strip the gun rights of millions of Americans who receive social security and disability benefits who also have a representative payee – someone who handles their finances.

Politifact failed to consult the most relevant source of all for their story, federal law, as a result, they got it wrong.

Politifact's website identifies the writer as a "Politifact intern."

The following Politifact claims are FALSE:

"The new policy would not ban all Social Security Administration (SSA) recipients from owning guns. Rather, it would only affect the small fraction who are deemed mentally incompetent, and who are thus are barred from purchasing guns under the law."

"The policy would not take away guns from people who already own them. There is no indication that this policy would take guns away from people who already own guns. Rather, the policy would affect the ability of some mentally incompetent people from buying new guns."

The facts:

·         Social Security Administration recipients who have a representative payee have not been deemed "mentally incompetent." That is not a legal term recognized in federal law as it relates to prohibitions against acquiring or possessing firearms.

·         The federal prohibitions against acquiring or possessing firearms apply to those "adjudicated as a mental defective." 

·         Under the proposed new policy, individuals who have representative payees would lose the right to possess any guns they might currently own and would be prohibited from purchasing new firearms.

·         The term "adjudication," refers to a determination made after a judicial-type process that includes various due process protections. In no case does the federal law describe or contemplate the type of prohibition by bureaucratic fiat exercised by the SSA in developing its guidelines for those with "representative payees" assigned to their accounts.

·         The SSA's representative payee system is not the type of process envisioned by federal firearms statutes.

·         Since 1968, federal law has barred the possession or acquisition of firearms by anyone who "has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution."[1]

·         The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has issued regulations that define an "adjudication" as a "determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person is, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease: (1) Is a danger to himself or to others; or (2) Lacks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs." This includes a finding of insanity or incompetency in a criminal case.[2]

·         "Committed to a mental institution" is defined as a "formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a court, board, or other lawful authority." The definition makes clear that "[t]he term does not include a person in a mental institution for observation or a voluntary admission."  The Supreme Court has held that an involuntary commitment is a serious deprivation of liberty that requires due process of law under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[3]

·         Common reasons SSA beneficiaries request a representative payee include:

-          Individual lives far from banks and grocery stores and may wish to have a family member or friend make bank deposits and grocery purchases for them;

-          individual may not own a car and needs help with banking and shopping;

-          individual may simply want help paying bills, or

-          individual may not be good at balancing their checkbook.

[1] 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(d)(4), (g)(4).

[2] 27 CFR § 478.11.

[3] Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418 (1979).

 

Catherine Mortensen

Media Liaison

NRA, Institute for Legislative Action

703-267-1149 (desk line) 202-590-0184 (cell #)

cmortensen@nrahq.org

Follow me on Twitter @catmortensenNRA

www.NRAILA.org

Fact Check...

Also known as the ‘rest of the story’!!!

For years, gun control advocates have been peddling the claim that “40 percent of gun sales do not go through background checks.” Recently the claim has made its way into several news outlets, including the Las Vegas Sun, USA Today, and the New York Times. The claim that 40 percent of gun sales do not go through a federal background check is false and comes from a decades-old survey that has been widely debunked.

The REAL facts are below.

• Media outlets including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Washington Post have concluded that this claim is false.  Washington Post gave the claim 3 out of 4 Pinochios for being way off target.

• Most of the survey covered sales before there was a federal background check system.

• The 1994 survey was conducted eight months after the Brady Act went into effect, mandating background checks on individuals seeking to buy firearms from federally licensed dealers. Survey participants were asked about their gun acquisitions going back two years. Some of the participants likely made gun purchases before the Brady Act, when they were not required to undergo federal background checks.

• Self-reports are inherently unreliable – not actual data of sales.

• Only a small group of gun owners — 251 people — answered the survey question about the origin of their weapons. Some of the gun owners were not sure how they had gotten their guns, answering “probably” or “probably not” on whether they got the gun from a licensed firearm dealer. 

That’s how many people, or how few they are using to extrapolate for the rest of us. Think about that… 251…

• Additionally, the federal survey simply asked buyers if they thought they were buying from a licensed firearms dealer. While all Federal Firearm Licensees (FFLs) do background checks, only those perceived as being FFLs were counted. Yet, there is much evidence that survey respondents who went to the smallest FFLs, especially the “kitchen table” types, had no idea that the dealer was actually “licensed.” Many buyers seemed to think that only “brick and mortar” stores were licensed dealers, and so the survey underestimating the number of sales covered by the checks.

• The researchers gave this number for all transactions, including gifts, not just “sales.” Count only guns that were bought, traded, borrowed, rented, issued as a job requirement or won through raffles, and 85 percent went through federally licensed gun dealers; just 15 percent would’ve been transferred without a background check.

• Economist John Lott, the author of several landmark studies on the real-world impact of gun control, has concluded that if you take out transfers of guns either between FFLs or between family members, the remaining number of transfers falls to about 10 percent. Lott stated, “We don’t know the precise number today, but it is hard to believe that it is above single digits.” (http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/op-ed-truth-background-checks)

Facts on “how criminals get their guns”:

• How criminals get guns—According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the vast majority of criminals in state prison for gun crimes get guns through theft, on the black market, from a drug dealer or “on the street.” Less than one percent get guns from gun shows.

• Straw purchasers—According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), “The most frequent type of trafficking channel identified in ATF investigations is straw purchasing from federally licensed firearms dealers. Nearly 50 percent . . . .” Straw purchasers are people who pass background checks and buy guns for criminals, defeating the background check system.

• Stolen guns—According to the BJS, “about 1.4 million guns, or an annual average of 232,400, were stolen during burglaries and other property crimes in the six-year period from 2005 through 2010.” The FBI’s stolen firearm file contained over 2 million reports as of March 1995. The BATFE has reported “Those that steal firearms commit violent crimes with stolen guns, transfer stolen firearms to others who commit crimes, and create an unregulated secondary market for firearms, including a market for those who are prohibited by law from possessing a gun.” Even gun control supporters have said, “approximately 500,000 guns are stolen each year from private citizens. . . . Obviously, these stolen guns go directly into the hands of criminals.” A study conducted by gun control supporters found that in 1994 “About 211,000 handguns and 382,000 long guns were stolen in noncommercial thefts that year, for a total of 593,000 stolen firearms.”

Stale, outdated facts, based on an extremely small sample size with an unknown confidence factor and questionable answers… Best case, +/-6.19% confidence interval based on a 50% accuracy…

To get a ‘valid’ sample, you’d need somewhere between 9600 and 38400 people. That actually would be usable, assuming 100,000,000 gun owners…

h/t NRA Media

Link Clean Up...

Spent the morning cleaning up blog links...

Deleted all links that hadn't posted in a year. I'm sad to say we lost 52 links... That's 52 voices we will no longer be able to share, and it's enough to make one wonder if people are getting fed up, scared, tired of pissing into the wind or what.

The truly sad part is a number of those blogs were from the ladies, and we've lost some great voices for the female side of the gun world.

If you know of gun bloggers we're not listing, please let us know with a link to their blogs.

Our little corner of the Internet deserves to have our voices heard.

Thanks to all those who visit and hit the links, in addition to those bloggers who have kept the faith and continue to be those voices 'in the wilderness' so to speak.