According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI),
as of 2013, approx. 35.2% of recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance
(SSDI) receive it for mental health reasons vs 64.8% who receive SSDI for
physical disability. On Feb 2, 2017, according
to Politicu Usa, House Republicans voted to overturn an Obama administration
ruling that blocked disability recipients with mental disorders from buying
guns. This move surprised me, not because
the Republican Party always sides with gun manufactures, regardless of the societal
cost, but because it doesn’t make sense financially – something the Republicans
espouse.
I was surprised when I retired, after nearly 50 years of
working, to find I would have received more money from Social Security if I were
disabled than I was going to receive from all of my years of working and
contributing. I have no problem helping
out people who need extra help - within reason. But this doesn’t make much
sense to me. And the situation has
gotten worse over time. Based on a study
by the Cato Institute in 2013, titled ‘The Rising Cost of Social Disability
Insurance,’ “the number of SSDI beneficiaries jumped from 4.3 million in 1990,
to 6.7 million in 2000, to 10.9 million in 2012, and the ratio of SSDI
beneficiaries to all working-age people has doubled in the last two decades.” This upward trend is not because there are
more disabled people around, as the report states “the share of the U.S.
working-age population reporting a severe disability has remained stable,” it
is because more people are relying on SSDI permanently who are capable of
working but can’t find a job, which is clearly a problem.
Since Republicans would prefer to have fewer people taking
SSDI payments, why not keep a policy that does not allow them to possess fire
arms. That would reduce the number of
people who file for SSDI, who don’t really qualify, and who are obsessed with
their right to bear arms. It would also
keep guns out of the hands of the 33% of SSDI recipients who do have mental
health issues and should not be running around armed and dangerous. This is a win win for people who would
welcome more intelligent gun controls, and for people looking for ways to cut
government costs.
Some other gun statistics I learned when doing research for the George Lucas Books title "Cause of Death" here:
http://causeofdeathbook.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-americans-use-guns.html
