Unveiled through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Gun Owners of America (GOA), the shocking materials revealed the extent that the bureau went in secret and without congressional approval. The FBI was shown to coordinate with the Secret Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deny constitutional rights to over two dozen Americans.
This information came after another report by the Examiner in December 2022 unveiled how the FBI apparently worked with medical facilities to strip rights away from at least five individuals.
Aidan Johnston, federal affairs director for GOA, was clear in his harsh assessment of the FBI actions. “Any time you have evidence of private entities coordinating with federal agents to strip Americans of their rights, the public should be alarmed and demanding answers and action.”
Johnston added that the new evidence is simply the latest revelation “of the illegal NICS self-submission form being used in nefarious ways, and those who used it to violate the public’s trust must be held accountable.”
It had already been revealed how the FBI between 2016 and 2019 brought forms to U.S. citizens in their homes and other locations to register them with the agency’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Some of the usage has now been dated back to 2011.
The FBI presented individuals with documents to sign confirming that they voluntarily identify as a “danger” to themselves or others. These people were also asked to sign a statement declaring they lacked the “mental capacity adequately to contract” their lives.
Signatories of the forms were not given a pathway for restoring their forfeited rights.
First Amendment attorneys and advocates question the fact that these forms even exist, and several legislators are taking the bureau to task for this practice. Among congressional critics are House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
One observer, former Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli, said that the existence of the forms illustrates the “rogue nature” of some in the federal government.
As the Examiner reported, this FBI practice was said to be discontinued in 2019. However, documents reveal that agents did more than go to the homes of some Americans with pen and paper in hand. The report clearly showed that medical facilities in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma “used the gun forms and supplied signatory records to the FBI.”
That means that private practices worked with the federal agency to get patients to sign away their constitutional rights.
And the forms obtained by the Examiner showed no reason why the person who signed forfeited their rights. Meanwhile, the Gun Control Act of 1968, which regulates firearms ownership, does not stipulate that a person may label themselves unfit to own firearms.
It says that a person could lose their rights if they are “adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution.”
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) took the agency to task for the secret practice. “Make no mistake — the FBI is weaponizing NICS forms to advance the…agenda of dismantling our Second Amendment liberties and disarming our nation. Congress must thoroughly investigate this troubling matter and hold all unelected, anti-gun bureaucrats involved accountable for forcing Americans to relinquish their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
No one wants the seriously mentally ill to have firearms, but the FBI’s backdoor approach to get people to sign these forms is beyond the pale. To discard constitutional rights, there must be more safeguards than merely presenting a federal paper for signature.
