Sometimes, I just don’t know what to say:
The House voted 235-180 largely along party lines Thursday to repeal an Obama-era rule requiring the Social Security Administration to send records of some beneficiaries to the federal firearms background check system after they’ve been deemed mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs.
The rule, when implemented, would affect about 75,000 recipients of disability insurance and supplemental insurance income who require a representative to manage their benefits because of a disabling mental disorder, ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia. It applies to those between age 18 and full retirement age.
Republicans argued the rule, which was vigorously opposed by gun-rights and disability groups, would unfairly stigmatize people with disabilities and strip them of their Second Amendment rights without due process.
“This is a slap in the face for those in the disabled community because it paints all those who suffer from mental disorders with the same broad brush,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. “It assumes that simply because an individual suffers from a mental condition, that individual is unfit to exercise his or her Second Amendment rights.”
If you need a representative to handle your SSI or disability check because you’re not mentally competent to do it yourself, then you probably shouldn’t be in the market for a gun.
I could craft an argument for why people with severe mental disorders who cannot work or handle money shouldn’t be handling firearms, but if you don’t agree instinctually then I doubt I could convince you.
People have different opinions and values about guns. Personally, I’m willing to make allowances and concessions to people with whom I disagree on these issues because I recognize that I how I feel shouldn’t be controlling for everyone. But, on this particular issue, I don’t see honest differences of opinion. I see Republican congresspeople who have no interest in keeping us safe.
When an insane young man raised by a delusional mother with a houseful of weapons slaughtered a school full of kindergarteners, and one of the conservative-side responses was ‘We should train young children to rush the shooter, in hopes they can overwhelm him with a human wave attack’ instead of ‘Holy shit why should people have access to this kind of military-grade hardware’ I knew that we as a society were hopelessly adrift.
This, sadly doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Recall that Iowa okayed concealed carry permits for the blind.
I believe we’ll soon look back at “Idiocracy” as not a satire morphed into frightening documentary, but a hopelessly optimistic view of dismal reality.
Of course there is always some stupid thing to justify the insanity, There always is. What truly amazes me are the large, very large, numbers of people who buy into all these lies.it is not too far to say many of them think anyone of millions of Muslims or Mexicans are evil. We have a sick society.
Like cocaine, willful ignorance is a hell of a drug. 🙁
I own guns. This vote is nothing but crazy.
Same here.
What pisses me of is the speed with which they rushed to do this. We don’t have any bigger fish to fry right now?
That’s the point — that’s what makes it Blitzkreig.
Goodlatte is a bad cup of coffee.
These blitzkreig moves are just a sample of what lies ahead, but done as quickly as they can. They’re going after the recent Obama-established laws that can still be flipped as a way to overwhelm the Liberals and build a surge of support from their base. They are crowing with glee as gun laws, environmental protection laws and immigration rules get ripped to pieces.
They’ll reach a slowing point in their lightning strikes, as they have with the demolition of the ACA, but they’ll continue to bulldoze wherever they can. It’s shocking, but I’m guessing it will only get worse.
Mentally diminished folks and guns. What could go wrong?
It’s hard not to lose heart, witnessing these sociopaths run roughshod over our laws and interests. Nevertheless, I believe in my heart of hearts that the tide will eventually turn and assholes like those running our three branches of government today will become unelectable. Perhaps the next few years will cause the tide to turn but that’s harder to predict. Perhaps it will take another generation or more. As MLK said, I may not live to see it.
I doubt if I’ll live to see improvements.
Note who’s in the room sitting right next to Trump to “help him” with his Supreme Court pick, none other than NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre. And that’s because the ONLY concern of LaPierre and thus his GOP toadies has always been, not the Constitution or public safety or crime even. Its all about expanding the market for gun sales.
Not only is this move outside of plain common sense, a healthy society doesn’t make decisions like this. And we’ve long since stopped being “healthy.”
That damn sig line of mine … sometimes it makes so much good sense … like now.
Your sig line is essentially, “I got mine, fuck you.”
Thanks for chiming in.
Uh, no. More like, “I’ve worked hard to be where I am … geographically, financially … and I’m willing to lose it all in defense of my “kids”.” You? Sitting on your fat ass, spouting off, as you get herded and slaughtered like cattle? Sounds about right.
And you’re clearly an idiot.
I guess they are trying to increase the odds that one of their lunatic supporters goes on a rampage and kills a bunch of people protesting the atrocities for them.
I don’t know what to say about this either.
Never mind, it’s Friday. Let’s laugh at this week’s lawsuit which attempts to find Barack Obama responsible for the Klayman Airport Massacre.
More proof that Congress is nuts. How many Dem senators will support this? More or less than 13?
Listen to these big shovelfuls of horseshit:
It’s fucking shameful.
They are all fucking sociopaths.
Proof positive that we have been infiltrated by aliens who are in the process of trying to conquer us..
Like the Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man.” Their sacred text turns out to be a cookbook.
This one?
This whole situation?
I don’t they want to “eat” us, exactly…just use us for their own ends.
Whatever they may be…
AG
P.S. Don’t go calling me crazy, now…these people are quite clearly “alien” to all human reason and decency.
They look…strange…too.
C’mon…admit it. If you saw these two walking down your block in broad daylight, wouldn’t there be at least a little quiver of justified fear even if you had never read the newsrags and listened to the gallyhumphing of the major media about what fools and criminals they are? A sense that they somehow or other had bad plans for you?
Yup.
They want to eat your soul!!!
Bet on it.
Does “Stand Your Ground” work on a national level?
I have a strong feeling that it is indeed going to do so.
Soon.
Call it a hunch.
AG
Up vote for the excellent Twilight Zone ref.
This is crazy.
People will die because of this.
Yep. And the majority party in Congress has made it clear that its members cannot be bothered to care.
(“repeal”/rollback/elimination) Obamacare (especially expanded Medicaid) and regulations (labor, safety, health, environmental) than from this one.
Most likely many, many more.
But they won’t provide the sort of ratings boost you get from massacres of innocent 6-year-olds. So there’s that.
This is small potatoes, probably. I worked for an social services agency specifically dedicated to serving this exact clientele. Some of them might hear about this rule change (unlikely they’d read about it) and want to rush right out and buy a gun, but, no offense to them, I don’t think many of them would be capable gunslingers if they had a gun.
This is (yet another) largely symbolic move by idiotic Republicans in Congress. It’s about as meaningful in real life as the original rule was whenever it passed. Good, I suppose, to identify as many of the severely mentally disordered and prevent them from buying guns, but it’s hard to believe it’s a big target market for the gun makers.
Also, a lot of these folks have criminal records that would, hopefully, prevent them from being permitted to buy guns under rules that prevent those sales. There are way too many guns and too many insane, mostly undiagnosed madmen, buy and use them every day. This rule doesn’t make a hill of beans of difference one way or the other.
Perhaps this is equal portios red meat for the base and red flag for liberals?
I mean, if I were deregulating banking, I would probably want people to focus on something else.
I wish on-line news stories would include a link to a list of Ayes and Noes along with saying The House voted 235-180 largely along party lines If I’m going to call my GOP Congressman and ream him out, I want to make sure he really voted for this before I call.
It took quite a bit of clicking, but I finally found the list in the Congressional Record.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2017/roll077.xml