Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: President waves privacy rights of citizens by executive order

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

President waves privacy rights of citizens by executive order

By Neil W. McCabe - 7/1/1214
Editor, Guns & Patriots

President Barack Obama announced Jan. 3 his waiving of privacy requirements of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to allow states to turn over Americans' mental health files to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

"In April 2013, HHS began to identify the scope and extent of the problem, and based on public comments is now issuing a proposed rule to eliminate this barrier by giving certain HIPAA covered entities an express permission to submit to the background check system the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands," according to a White House statement.

The HIPPA law has strict protections for patient privacy, and in many cases requires an individual's written permission before his medical or medical billing information can be released.
Exceptions to HIPPA privacy must be related to the investigation of a crime, a missing person or to prevent and or stop the abuse of a child.

Once again, Obama has changed a law with the stroke of his pen without the slightest effort to make his case to the American people or their representatives in Congress.

The second executive action was the clarification of what it means to be committed.

"For example, DOJ is proposing to clarify that the statutory term 'committed to a mental institution' includes involuntary inpatient as well as outpatient commitments. In addition to providing general guidance on federal law, these clarifications will help states determine what information should be made accessible to the federal background check system, which will, in turn, strengthen the system's reliability and effectiveness," the White House statement said.

We already know that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who went for counseling, had their gun rights taken away by bureaucrats' with no avenue or process for appeal.

Why would we expand a program for removing a constitutional right to those who did not serve in uniform? Yes, it is bonkers, but it is also what passes for normal under this regime.

Gun rights are not the same as driving a car or getting your pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. They are rights that pre-date the Constitution, which enshrines them. If you want to change gun rights, you should have to amend the Constitution.

Many in the gun rights community have accepted background checks as a good thing and applaud the president's work to make them more complete. I do not. I reject the very idea of a background check.

It is absurd to me that some terrorist or gang-banger is going to fill out a form his local gun store before buying his gun.

Heck, it is absurd that an American has to fill out a form to see if he is entitled to a constitutional right in the first place.

In 2014, look for the mental illness card to be played by Obama and his fellow travelers in the gun rights movement looking for common ground.

No comments:

Post a Comment

It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.

Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765

Pages

Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

Preservation and Proposition

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

President waves privacy rights of citizens by executive order

No comments:

Post a Comment