WASHINGTON, D.C. -(Ammoland.com)- A Gun Owner of America (GOA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has turned up documents that show the use of the NICS-Index-Self-Submission Form goes beyond just the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In 2019, AmmoLand News published a secret FBI document that allowed American citizens to sign away their Constitutionally protected gun rights. At the time, it was believed that only mental health professionals and the FBI were using the form.
The GOA FOIA request proved that the document was used throughout the government.
Recently there has been a battle in Congress over the forms. A recent hearing over the forms shows that Congress is split on party lines. Republicans have been horrified over the use of the documents, while Democrats have been trying to get the use of the form codified into law. Dueling bills over the forms are expected to be filed over the use of the documents.
The documents, first revealed by the Washington Examiner, show that other government agencies, such as the Secret Service (USSS), Social Security Administration (SSA), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), all worked hand and hand with the FBI to strip Americans of their gun rights by using the legally dubious form. One form found in 2017 shows that the USSS submitted a document to the FBI to add someone to the NICS indices for being adjudicated as mentally defective, which is legal under the law. Still, the government agency would go beyond what was allowed by Congress.
In 2018, the USSS would start utilizing the FBI’s NICS-Index-Self-Submission Form with subjects of multiple investigations. The Secret Service would continue to use the form to have targets of their investigations sign away their gun rights. The USSS doesn’t tell the FBI how they got the people to sign the documents leading some to believe that the people could have been coerced and pressured to give up their rights.
The Secret Service wrote: “Good evening [redacted],” the Secret Service said in an email to the FBI on March 30, 2018. “Attached is a NICS self-submission form for [redacted] (DOB: [redacted]).”
We know that the USSS and SSA have had access to the forms since 2016. In an email dated November 4, 2016, the FBI shared the document with both agencies to add people to the NICS indices. It isn’t clear if the SSA used the forms like the USSS, but the email clarifies that the agency was trying to obtain the form. The SSA controls the purse strings for the disabled and the elderly, meaning they have a lot of sway over millions of Americans who could be pressured into signing the form because of the fear of losing the ability to put food on the table.
Many in the gun community wonder what other agencies used the NICS-Index-Self-Submission Form and how many people those agencies added to the NICS indices. GOA has been the leading gun rights organization looking into the use of the document. They are worried about the government abusing the forms.
“The only thing more outrageous than one federal agency carrying out an unconstitutional program to disarm Americans without authorization from Congress is multiple federal agencies illegally violating the Constitution,” Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for GOA, told AmmoLand News. “GOA and GOF will continue to expose this federal abuse of the Second Amendment and will not rest until bureaucrats are held accountable.”
The exposure of these documents makes many wonder what other documents the FBI is hiding.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
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