An Obama-era regulation that could have prevented some Social Security recipients from buying firearms is officially dead.
The Social Security Administration has withdrawn a regulation that would have required information on certain disability recipients to be sent to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, something that could make it more difficult for them to purchase a firearm.
The withdrawal is effective immediately.
The rule was put in place by the Obama administration as part of its efforts to crack down on gun violence, with the Social Security regulation in particular designed to keep firearms away from those who are mentally impaired. Controversial from the start, Republicans and the Trump administration have worked to roll back the measures, voting to do away with the social security reporting requirement.
Federal gun laws already in place prohibit certain people from owning guns, including those with “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.” At its inception, the Obama administration said as many 4.2 million adult would have been impacted by the restrictions.
