| "The Plan"
On the White House website, there is posted "The Plan" Obama's Plan to "protect our children and our communities by reducing gun violence".
Set aside the issue of guns for a minute - and look at what he is proposing:
Page 4 - "Strengthen the Background Check System"
The background check system is the most efficient and effective way to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals, but we need to make sure it has access to complete information about these individuals. For example, although the number of mental health records available to the system has increased by 800 percent since 2004, a recent report by the Government Accountability Office found that there are still 17 states that have made fewer than 10 mental health records available.
Note: With the nationalized (collectivized electronic ) medical records database, it won't just be mental health records that are available, it will be your entire medical record. Do you have diabetes? Sleep disorder? Ever see a marriage counselor? Ever have issues with your children? While they are using mental health to gain access to the medical record, that is the camel's nose in the tent for adding restrictions for other issues. More importantly however, it's a breech of medical privacy for purposes other than medical. And, for the record, encounters with the mental health system - or even talking to your doctor about any problem that could be classified as psychological, is not a predictor for the potential of violent behavior - with or without a gun.
Address unnecessary legal barriers that prevent states from reporting information about those prohibited from having guns: Some states have cited concerns about restrictions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act as a reason not to share relevant information on people prohibited from gun ownership for mental health reasons. The Administration will begin the regulatory process to remove any needless barriers, starting by gathering information about the scope and extent of the problem.
• Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system:
States are a critical source for several key categories of relevant records and data, including criminal history records and records of persons prohibited from having guns for mental health reasons. The Department of Justice will invest $20 million in FY2013 to give states stronger incentives to make this data available. The Administration is also proposing $50 million for this purpose in FY2014, and will look for additional ways to ensure that states are doing their part to provide relevant information.
• Hold federal agencies accountable for sharing reliable information with the background check system: Some federal agencies also have relevant records. The President is issuing a Presidential Memorandum holding agencies to requirements that they identify these records, make them available to the background check system, and regularly report that those records are complete and up-to-date.
Help communities across the country keep 15,000 cops on the street: One of the most important steps we can take to reduce gun violence is to keep police officers at their posts in our neighborhoods and communities. The President is calling on Congress to act on the Administration’s $4 billion proposal to help keep 15,000 cops on the street in cities and towns across the country.
[Note: Do we need federal gun cops on the streets? They are calling them police officers - but police officers should be locally funded and locally supported. This is a continuation of the federalization and militarization of our police - and it must stop]
• Take executive action to enhance tracing data: When law enforcement recovers a gun during a criminal investigation, they can trace that gun’s path from its manufacturer, to the dealer who sold it, to its first purchaser. This gun tracing process helps law enforcement solve violent crimes by generating leads in specific cases and can reveal gun trafficking patterns when large amounts of tracing data are combined. However, not all federal law enforcement agencies are uniformly required to trace all guns they recover and keep in custody. The President will issue a Presidential Memorandum requiring them to trace all such firearms.
[Note: A tracing system like this will impose controls on manufacturers - who will in turn impose controls on purchasers. This is a supply chain tyranny of control - a roundabout way of forcing gun control through the private sector].
There is a lot more in "The Plan" and while you are reading it, keep in mind that the strategy they use is blackmail.... threaten the worst and "compromise" on the rest... but really it's the compromises that move the ball down the field towards their goal line.
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