EXCLUSIVE — A Republican senator is calling for an investigation into the FBI, Secret Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for secretly coordinating to strip U.S. citizens of their rights to own, use, or even buy firearms.
The Washington Examiner reported on Dec. 13 that the three federal agencies waived people’s gun rights without congressional approval with internal forms. Now, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wants answers from the government on this “extremely concerning” revelation and for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to “immediately hold a hearing” with FBI, ICE, and Secret Service officials.
“It is extremely concerning that federal agents have allegedly been pressuring American citizens to waive their constitutional rights. The Second Amendment is not negotiable and cannot be waived by signing a form, regardless of what the deep state wishes,” Blackburn, who is also a member of the Judiciary Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
“A federal agency cannot simply strip Americans of their Second Amendment right,” she said. “We need answers and documents that will tell us exactly what happened.”
Between 2016 and 2019, FBI agents obtained signatures from almost two dozen people at their homes and in other undisclosed locations with the forms, the Washington Examiner reported. These forms, which were never approved by the Office of Management and Budget, ask signatories to declare themselves a “danger” to themselves or others or lacking the “mental capacity adequately to contract or manage” their lives.
Signatories were registered with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and their names were redacted in documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner. The FBI, in many cases, was investigating signatories for making violent threats in online chat rooms, in person, and on social media, records show.
The existence of the signed forms has continued to gain more relevance in Congress as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and other members attempt to pass a bill that would provide a mechanism for the public to add themselves to the NICS database.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is set to be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee next Congress, as well as other Republican Judiciary Committee members, have criticized the bill and said it proves the FBI had no legal basis to strip gun rights without congressional approval.
A senior GOP source close to the Senate Judiciary Committee told the Washington Examiner that lawmakers would be wise to investigate how FBI agents were “pressuring Americans to waive their constitutional rights.”
“What were the Secret Service and ICE doing with the forms?” Blackburn also said. “Were other agencies involved? Who approved this alleged operation? It’s clear there needs to be widespread accountability, and all available options should be on the table.”
While it is unclear whether other federal agencies have used the NICS forms, emails previously reported on show that an FBI agent shared them with the Social Security Administration.
“The U.S. Secret Service works through the agency’s appropriate channels to diligently address correspondence and requests from Congress directly,” Steven Kopek, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told the Washington Examiner.
Next Congress, Republicans have vowed to investigate the alleged politicization of the Justice Department and FBI. Blackburn thinks the FBI’s usage of the NICS forms fits into this narrative.
“Whether it’s treating concerned school parents like domestic terrorists, colluding with Big Tech to censor conservatives, or raiding the home of President Biden’s top political opponent, the DOJ and FBI’s coordination with other government agencies and private sector entities to target Americans is becoming an alarming pattern,” Blackburn told the Washington Examiner.
All of the signed forms and internal government emails reported on by the Washington Examiner were obtained by the firearms rights group Gun Owners of America as part of its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI. The existence of the form itself was first revealed in 2019 by Ammoland — but the gun blog did not provide evidence of it being used.
Second Amendment lawyers have raised concerns over the legality of the NICS forms. In addition to the fact that they were never approved by the OMB and sent for public comment, attorneys have said it is unclear how the forms agree or conflict with the Gun Control Act of 1968.
The act says that someone may be barred from owning firearms if he or she is “adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution” but does not say people can rule themselves unfit to own guns.
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The FBI declined the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
ICE and Durbin’s office did not respond.
