The NRA is mustering its biggest guns on Capitol Hill to defeat a White House maneuver it calls the “largest gun grab in American history.”

And one aimed squarely at some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.

As part of President Obama’s plan to expand gun control through executive action, the Social Security Administration is finalizing a plan to strip Second Amendment rights from millions of law-abiding citizens.

The administration claims beneficiaries who receive their pension or disability payments through a family member — or other person who handles their finances — are “mentally incapable” of owning guns, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The move – which would incorporate information from Social Security recipients into the national database used to determine if someone is prohibited from owning firearms – could hit as many as 4.2 million Social Security recipients.

While the administration argues that the plan is merely aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally incompetent, the ban would likely include millions who may just have trouble with their memory or difficulty balancing a check book.

According to critics, financial independence should not be a pre-requisite for allowing Americans to practice their Second Amendment rights.

“Someone can be incapable of managing their funds but not be dangerous, violent or unsafe,” Yale psychiatrist Dr. Marc Rosen told the Times. “They are very different determinations.”

The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action described the plan as a chilling new infringement on gun rights, as bureaucrats – rather than judges or juries – will be able to deny millions of law-abiding citizens their basic rights.

“The implications of this policy are too far reaching to fathom at present. Social Security is one of the more prolific and relied upon federal programs in American history,” the NRA said in a statement.

After the NRA went public with its opposition, at least a dozen members of the House of Representatives  signed a letter to the acting Commissioner of Social Security, Carolyn Colvin, asking that the agency halt any efforts to provide information on beneficiaries to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

“Old age or a disability doesn’t make someone a threat to society. Having a representative payee should not be grounds to revoke constitutional rights,” the letter stated, according to the Washington Times.

But to the gun grabbers in the White House, any reason to revoke Second Amendment rights seems like a good one. Having someone else balance their checkbook, apparently, makes over 4 million retirees a real threat to public safety.

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Michael Schaus

Michael Schaus is a talk radio host, political humorist, and columnist. Having worked in a wide range of industries (including construction, journalism, and financial services) his perspectives and world views are forged with a deep understanding of what it means to be an American entrepreneur.

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