A regulation which required that the Social Security Administration automatically report any beneficiary who receives assistance managing their finances due to a mental disability to the FBI to be entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is set to be rescinded.
These beneficiaries would have forfeited their rights to possess and purchase firearms. Those persons with classified with mental disabilities and drawing Social Security benefits would have been entered into the NICS.
“Reporting law-abiding, non-dangerous individuals to NICS and forcing them, as a condition of removal, to provide they are not a threat to society is inconsistent with the (Gun Control Act), the Second Amendment and basic due process,” wrote Chris W. Cox of the National Rifle Association.
“We oppose this rule because it advances and reinforces the harmful stereotype that people with mental disabilities, a vast and diverse group of citizens, are violent. There is no data to support a connection between the need for a representative payee to manage one’s Social Security disability benefits and a propensity toward gun violence,” wrote the Faiz Shakir, director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union.