Exercising the Right
Citizens Forfeiting Gun Rights
On March 25, the Washington Examiner reported on bombshell allegations that the U.S. government has been using a little-known federal form to strip citizens of their Second Amendment-protected rights by claiming they are mentally unfit to own firearms. Recently released documents showed that the form was used by federal agents even though it had not been approved by Congress. The form has been criticized by Republican lawmakers as being unconstitutional.
According to the documents, for nearly a decade, the FBI, the Secret Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement colluded in the use of the form, which led at least 60 U.S. citizens, via plea agreements, to relinquish their right to ever own firearms. The pro-Second Amendment group Gun Owners of America filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which uncovered the documents. The release of documents did not disclose what those defendants had done to be subject to a plea agreement, but Second Amendment advocates criticized the form not only because it forced people to forfeit their gun rights, but also because it had not gone through the proper channels of approval by Congress.
“Bureaucrats at the FBI created an unconstitutional form without authorization from any statute and began pressuring people with mental illness to give up their rights to own a firearm,” Aidan Johnston, a representative for Gun Owners of America, told the Washington Examiner.
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