The House on Thursday voted to undo an Obama-era rule that Republicans said wrongly blocked certain people from buying guns.
The rule, approved in the wake of the 2012 massacre of kindergartners in Newtown, Conn., expanded whose names must automatically be entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, thereby preventing them from buying a gun.
Under the rule, anyone with a mental disability receiving Social Security Administration benefits and requiring third-party assistance with their finances is barred from purchasing firearms.
The resolution of disapproval passed on Thursday 235-180. Under the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers can negate regulations if a joint resolution passes both chambers. However, it requires the president’s signature. While Obama was still president, Republicans needed a veto-proof majority to overturn any of his administration’s regulations.
The resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, said the rule unfairly denies Americans’ with disabilities Second Amendment Rights.
“This is wrong,” he stated. “Social Security has no business stripping people of their Constitutional rights. We need to protect the rights of all Americans, including individuals with disabilities.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said the repeal of “this egregious rule” will ” send the strong message that we will protect Americans’ constitutional rights.”
“The Obama administration’s rule is discriminatory and deprives law-abiding Americans of their constitutional rights,” Goodlatte said. “There is no evidence suggesting that those receiving disability benefits from the Social Security Administration are a threat to public safety. Once an unelected bureaucrat unfairly adds these folks to the federal background check system, they are no longer able to exercise their Second Amendment right and face a cumbersome appeals process to remove their names from the system.”
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who opposed the resolution, said he has “always been a strong ally of the disability community and have paid close attention to the concerns many have had with this rule.”
“I disagree with the premise that having a mental disability that precludes independent management of one’s finances correlates with a heightened risk of violence,” he said. “I have read the rule and recognize that it was written in a narrow way so that it applies only to those with ‘severe’ mental illnesses.”
Hoyer added: “I look forward to working closely with the disability community and gun safety advocates to push for Congress to take up legislation that keeps all Americans safe from gun violence while protecting the rights of those with differing abilities.”
The National Rifle Association’s legislative arm hailed the resolution’s passage.
“The Obama administration’s last-minute, back-door gun grab would have stripped law-abiding Americans of their Second Amendment rights without due process,” stated Cox, the group’s executive director.
The NRA and others who support rolling back the rule say it does not give affected recipients a fair chance to appeal being entered into the database.
“This ill-conceived action stripped some of the most vulnerable Americans of their right to keep and bear arms without due process,” Cox stated.
