![\"TSHIRTSITECOLDHANDS\"](\"http:\/\/www.teaparty.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/TSHIRTSITECOLDHANDS.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nActing Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin signed the rule and it was posted to the Federal Register on April 28, according to\u00a0Guns.com.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0\u201cImplementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act\u201d\u00a0spells out a five-step qualification process that will be used to first identify and then report selected Title II and Title XVI beneficiaries to the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
Americans who have filed a claim with the agency based on disability and are adjudicated as having a diagnosed Mental Disorder Listing, are over 18 but under retirement age, and receive benefits through a representative payee approved by SSA due to being incapable of managing their own payments will have their Second Amendment right stripped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SSA has reported that as many as 75,000 individuals per year could meet such guidelines. As of March 2016, the agency reports that 65,488,000 people are receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or both, making the estimated number expected to report to NICS comprise 0.11 percent of those currently receiving benefits,\u201d notes Chris Eger.<\/p>\n
Government Considers Large Number of Americans Mentally Ill<\/strong><\/p>\nThe\u00a0SSA website\u00a0breaks down who might qualify as mentally impaired, including individuals who have problems with \u201cadaptive activities such as cleaning, shopping, cooking, taking public transportation, paying bills, maintaining a residence, caring appropriately for\u2026 grooming and hygiene, using telephones and directories, and using a post office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, people determined to have issues with the \u201ccapacity to interact independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis with other individuals\u2026 such as family members, friends, neighbors, grocery clerks, landlords, or bus drivers\u2026 [and] demonstrate impaired social functioning by, for example, a history of altercations, evictions, firings, fear of strangers, avoidance of interpersonal relationships, or social isolation\u201d will be classified as mentally disabled and not qualified to exercise the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n
According to the government, \u201csocial impairment\u201d is a mental illness and includes those who either are unable or unwilling to \u201cinitiate social contacts with others, communicate clearly with others, or interact and actively participate in group activities.\u201d The classification is based upon \u201ccooperative behaviors\u201d that include \u201cconsideration for others, awareness of others\u2019 feelings, and social maturity.\u201d According to the SSA, not \u201cresponding appropriately to persons in authority\u201d is a form of mental illness.<\/p>\n
Template for Future Attacks on the Second Amendment<\/strong><\/p>\nFor now, the ruling only applies to Americans who have filed for and receive government benefits and are medically determined to be afflicted by the above.<\/p>\n
However, considering government mission creep and the determination of the Obama administration and Democrats to reduce the number of Americans practicing their rights, we can expect an effort to adjudicate more individuals incapable of possessing firearms.<\/p>\n
In 2014, under the cover of \u201cgun violence\u201d and in the wake of Sandy Hook, the Obama administration pledged federal dollars to an initiative designed to test students in K-12 public schools for mental illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic schools, which have increasingly taken on aspects of psychiatric clinics in recent years, will get infused with more than $150 million in federal grants to further this agenda under the auspices of Obama\u2019s 2013 executive action titled \u2018Now is the Time to Do Something About Gun Violence,\u2019\u201d\u00a0WND\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n
In February,\u00a0Infowars reported\u00a0on a recommendation by the United States Preventive Services Task Force to force health insurance companies to pay for mental health screening.<\/p>\n
\u201cMandatory depression screening will not just raise insurance costs,\u201d writes Ron Paul. \u201cIn order to ensure that the screening mandate is being properly implemented, the government will need to create a database containing the results of the screenings. Those anti-gun politicians who want to forbid anyone labeled \u2018mentally ill\u2019 from owning a firearm will no doubt want to use this database as a tool to deprive individuals of their Second Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, the US Department of Health and Human Services modified the government\u2019s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule \u201cto expressly permit certain HIPAA covered entities to disclose to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the identities of individuals who are subject to a Federal \u2018mental health prohibitor\u2019 that disqualifies them from shipping, transporting, possessing, or receiving a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the government,\u00a0mandatory mental health screening is an ideal mechanism for stripping Americans of their right to own firearms. As Ron Paul notes, even \u201cmental health professionals acknowledge that there is a great deal of subjectivity in mental health diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move by the SSA to nullify the Second Amendment right of 75,000 Americans is only the beginning. If Hillary Clinton enters the White House, we can expect further efforts to diminish and eventually relegate the cornerstone of the Constitution to the dustbin of history.<\/p>\n