Is President Obama attempting to ban Social Security recipients from owning guns? Millions of Americans who receive disability benefits each month may soon no longer be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights. If the recipient has a “representative payee,” meaning that they permit another person to handle their financial affairs, the Obama Administration wants to take their guns, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Although some of the Social Security recipients who receive disability benefits are already disqualified from gun ownership because of mental illness, more than one million people in the social services program category are reportedly currently permitted to own a hunting rifle or possess a concealed carry permit. Approximately 4.2 million citizens currently use a “representative payee” to handle their fiscal affairs.

Federal gun laws restrict the Second Amendment rights of those who are deemed to possess “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”

Second Amendment rights advocates staunchly opposed the proposal, deeming the Obama administration efforts as merely a backdoor attempt at gun control. Just because a senior citizen elects to permit an adult child to handle their banking and estate matters should not negate their right to bear arms, gun rights activists maintain. A veteran who lost a limb in combat, or an individual that is wheelchair bound, should not have those rights negated either, they also state.

The Obama administration contends that the Social Security gun ban plan would keep firearms out of the hands of some dangerous people, according to a Fox News report. If the White House plan goes forward as proposed, the Social Security administration would use the same format as the Veterans Affairs agency when it comes to reporting recipients to the federal government if they are deemed incompetent to own a gun.

“Someone can be incapable of managing their funds but not be dangerous, violent, or unsafe,” Dr. Marc Rosen, a Yale psychiatrist who has studied how veterans with “mental health problems” manage their funds, said. “They are very different determinations.” Rosen also stated that veterans could stop seeking treatment for PTSD and other mental health issues out of fear the government will take their guns away.

Since the creation of the federal firearms background check law, the Department of Veterans Affairs began reporting any recipient who has been assigned a fiduciary or been declared incompetent to manage their disability payments. The VA utilizes “adjudicated as a mental defective” statutes to justify the reporting of disability recipients.

Former Marine Steven Overman, 30, feels that his case highlights the flaw in the disability competency systems currently in use by the federal government. Overman’s Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2007. The Virginia veteran was diagnosed with a brain injury, which weakened his memory, and PTSD. In 2o12, the VA declared him 100 percent disabled and made his wife his representative payee.

“I didn’t know the VA could take away your guns,” Overman said when recalling the notification by the federal governmental agency that he was being reported to the background check system. The veteran immediately gave his guns to his mother and started working emphatically to get them back.

The former Marine also noted that his wife had handled the family’s financial affairs since his deployment, but he does not feel that he is a danger to himself or others.

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