Dear Mr. President:
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:48 AM
To:
'comments@whitehouse.gov';
'vice_president@whitehouse.gov'Subject: A bill that stands opposed to everything America means
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President,
I fear for our nation.
The House of Representatives recently passed HR-2640, a bill that places honest, innocent Americans on a list for the crime of having a treatable, often short term neurochemical disorder. And while the bill requires that “
all participating federal or state agencies to establish “relief from disability” programs that would allow a person to get the mental health prohibition removed, either administratively or in court” it is a requirement without a definition or guideline. So as long as a State has some kind of “relief from disability” program they are in compliance. Never mind that they never have to actually provide that relief, just have the program. Never mind that with no guidelines that relief could be as easy to get as a Gun Permit in New York City. Never mind that, in today’s litigious society no doctor or judge in their right mind will take a “potential relapse/crazy” off the list. This clause “protects” only one class of people – the Rich and Politically Connected. Average Americans get to go hang.
Since 18 USC nowhere defines “possession”, but precedent established by Drug Enforcement would indicate that if a “prohibited person” is simply in proximity to an unattended firearm within their home, they are in “possession”.
Am I in error in that interpretation?
It occurs to me that HR 2640 places in jeopardy every household in America that holds both a “prohibited person” and otherwise legally held firearms.
By creating a database of “prohibited persons”, whose only “crime” is having a treatable, often short term neurochemical disorder, and labeling them as “mentally defective”, HR 2640 will allow for the correlation of that new List and extant CCW & FOID lists. It appears to me that, given the precedent shown in regards to “possession”, that such correlations will provide sufficient probable cause to search such correlated homes for “firearms in possession of a ‘prohibited person’”.
This would, it seems, create a conflict between the 5th Amendment and compulsory Registration of any type (in the case of FOIDs or CCWs).
Given the above, the only logical response to the above problems would be, to “protect” firearms owners, to Register all “non-prohibited persons” along with an inventory of firearms “owned” – much in the same way Schedule A drugs are illegal for anyone but the prescribed patient to possess. Let me say that another way. This bill, supported by the NRA, almost mandates Universal Registration of Firearms and Firearms Owners – something I thought they opposed.
This bill creates an enemies list of “prohibited persons” whose only “crime” is that of having a treatable, often short term neurochemical disorder, and labels them as “mentally defective” – destroying decades of advocacy that has attempted to lessen the stigma of “mental illness”.
Our Fathers and Grandfathers fought WWII against a Government that made Lists of the “Mentally Defective”. Our own era saw the end of the Soviet’s similar practice.
Is the US going to pick up the mantle after them?
I am a Life Member of the NRA, but they are wrong here. Every Veteran of WWII, and every Jew in the world should know it.
Please help kill this bill in the Senate, or at least Veto it with prejudice.
This is not a Legacy your administration deserves - no matter how much the Democrats would like to saddle you with it - or the US Constitutional system can survive.
Labels: Politics
