WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today made the following statement after President Trump signed a bipartisan resolution to repeal an Obama-era regulation that threatened to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of Social Security Disability Beneficiaries without affording due process.
 
“The Obama Administration’s Social Security regulation to add individuals to the national gun ban list was highly flawed and risked the constitutional rights of Americans by ignoring long-standing law that spells out who should be prohibited from owning a gun.  The regulation failed to require a hearing before the agency reported a beneficiary’s name to the gun ban list, which is required by law.  I t failed to require the agency to prove that the individual is a danger to self or others.  And, it failed to require the agency to prove an individual is mentally ill before reporting him to the gun ban list.  With all this in mind, it’s really no wonder that disability and civil rights advocates opposed the regulation.  Whenever you have the NRA and the ACLU on the same side of a gun issue, you know the regulation must be bad policy.
 
“Existing laws and regulations preventing guns from falling into the wrong hands are still on the books, and federal agencies should comply with them. Unfortunately, this regulation was not narrowly tailored and reached far beyond its authority, at the expense of Americans’ fundamental constitutional rights. That’s simply unacceptable,” Grassley said.
 
The regulation required that the Social Security Administration submit names of beneficiaries to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System’s (NICS) “mental defective” list if they need assistance managing their disability benefits and have certain disorders.  However, the regulation was overly broad and would have captured innocent individuals in its regulatory net.  For example, the disorders list included eating disorders and other disorders that merely impact sleep or caused restlessness or even “feelings of inadequacy,” illustrating that the regulation was not limited to people with serious mental disorders that caused them to be dangerous.  Further, many of the disorders have no impact on gun safety.  As a result, it would unfairly restrict the ability of certain Social Security recipients to safely exercise their Second Amendment rights.
 
The regulation also failed to require the agency to determine that individuals are a danger to themselves or others or mentally ill before reporting them to the gun ban list. The regulation failed to include any due process prior to limiting the beneficiaries’ fundamental Second Amendment rights.  For example, under the regulation, the agency wouldn’t be required to provide a hearing prior to reporting a beneficiary to the gun ban list. Further, the regulation shifted the burden of proof to the beneficiaries to demonstrate that they are not a danger in order to be removed from the gun ban list and have their Second Amendment right restored.
 
Grassley led the effort in the Senate to repeal the flawed regulation, which passed both chambers by bipartisan votes. The resolution was supported by more than 20 disability and civil rights groups. A summary of the resolution and its supporters is available HERE.
 
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