WASHINGTON – If Barack Obama's strategy to limit the Second Amendment includes a nationwide master list of citizens barred from access to guns, such a restriction on their rights would require them to have their day in court, according to an advocacy group.
Mike Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, said one of the proposals expected from the president's advisory panel this week is to establish a universal background check.
The policy, he warned, would establish "the groundwork for setting up a national registry system," which would solidify America as a "police state."
Hammond said it's ominous that an executive order from Obama could "ask a whole bunch of departments for names of people who have mental problems to be sent to the NICS system."
The result would be that the Medicare system "could turn over the names of people" to a federal data base for a federal prohibition on access to guns. Restricted could be "the elderly," children who will grow up one day to purchase weapons legally and "the military and police who have been diagnosed with PTSD."
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Recently, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved legislation requiring that before the names of people who seek counseling are sent to the NICS system in West Virginia, they must have the opportunity to plead their case in court.
Hammond said "increased vigor" on the issue soon will be needed.
He said that if Obama starts turning over the names of people who sought counseling, such as children diagnosed with ADHD, "we're going to have to push for legislation that would require that these people get their day in court."
He's not surprised by Vice President Joe Biden's statement that the president might use executive orders in an attempt to curb gun violence.
"In the past they have attempted to ban the importation of shotguns … and we defeated that," he said.
He said it appears Obama wants to ban semi-automatic magazines and to install a universal background check system that would include a list of names of those not authorized for weapons.
Hammond said that Obama can either pursue a legislative solution or the executive order solution.
"I don't think it's going to help Obama get a legislative solution," he said. "If his executive order represents an effort to end run the Congress … he may be banking on the proposition that he is not going to get anything and this may be the only way he is going to declare victory. By declaring victory in this way, he diminishes any chance of a legislative success.”
He said to "declare it a victory over the gun lobby" actually may be Obama's goal.
He said Obama wants "to raise from the ashes the anti-gun movement, which is currently sort of impotent, and to destroy the Second Amendment movement and if he can say 'I can do some damage,' it will compensate for the fact that he is shut out of the legislative process."
Hammond also believes the White House's strategy will include targeting high-capacity magazines.
"It's our opinion if they ban magazines; they will indirectly succeed in banning the use of a large number of guns currently in the hands of Americas. There are not enough 10 round clips to allow all of the Rugers, Smith and Wessons and Glocks … to operate," he said.
He also warned Obama would commission the federal government to do anti-gun studies.
But he said there's already a solid core of resistance developing.
"Texas and Wyoming are passing new laws that say we're not going to allow our people to enforce federal anti-gun legislation, and if anybody comes into our state it will be a felony," he said.