Duke Professor Takes On The Social Security Administration’s Gun Ban

By Pamela Jablonski

Jeffrey Swanson, Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, recently penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he spoke out against the Social Security Administration’s overreaching gun regulations for some of its benefit recipients. Swanson has opposed the rule since it was first announced, as it was far-reaching in scope and there was no evidence to support the measure.

As previously discussed in two previous Bearing Arms articles, the SSA will provide the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) a list of those who currently receive a certain category of SSI benefits. This action will effect those collecting a medical disability based upon a mental illness.

The SSA standards which establish a person’s mental capacity has not shown a correlation to being a risk to the individual or others. Yet, this umbrella title of “mental illness” now concludes that this group of SSI recipients are violent.

With this new ruling, the SSA can place law-abiding, non-violent, SSI recipients into the NICS database without due process of law. This action not only prevents law-abiding citizens from owning and carrying firearms, but also vilifies them as being predisposed toward violence, stigmatizes them …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms