NRA Backs Law Against Adoption Agencies’ Gun Questions
By: Rick Pedraza Article Font Size
Adoption agencies are violating gun owners’ rights by asking prospective parents whether they keep guns and ammunition in the home, according to a Florida state legislator trying to ban the practice.
And the National Rifle Association backs the law Republican Sen. Thad Altman has introduced in the Florida Legislature that would make it unlawful for an adoption agency to ask gun ownership questions, according to a report in the Miami Herald. Such questions violate privacy rights, the proposal contends.
Altman became involved in the issue after two constituents in his congressional district complained when they tried to adopt a child.
“An adoption agency has no right to subvert the privacy rights of gun owners,” Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the NRA, told The Herald.
Hammer noted that requiring individuals to register guns is illegal in Florida; therefore, requiring couples to disclose whether they own firearms before adopting a child should be, too.
Liz Bruner, a spokeswoman for the Children’s Home Society, said Florida’s privatized child-welfare system asks about gun ownership because the state’s Department of Children & Families requires it in its role overseeing the adoption process.
“We’re trying to get an updated form to use, but there’s a gray area over what [form] we can use,” Bruner said.
A spokesperson for Florida’s DCF reported that some forms used in the state’s adoption process include the gun ownership question, while other forms don’t, depending on which subcontractor handling the adoption process is involved.
NRA critics, including Democratic Sen. Nan Rich, contend the gun ownership question on adoption forms is valid and doesn’t agree that adoption agencies should be banned from asking the question. “Parents frequently ask if other parents have guns in the home before their kids play there, so why can’t an adoption agency just ask?” Rich told The Herald.
Wild Thing’s comment……….
“Hammer noted that requiring individuals to register guns is illegal in Florida”
I never knew this, every time we have bought a gun at the gun store we always had to register them. Maybe they mean from gun shows or from private citizens.
And the other thing about having to ask about guns by an adoption agency. I grew up with guns in the home and from a young age was taught about them.
….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
I, too, was raised around guns of all types. We children were taught how to handle and use firearms safely from a very young age (5 in my case). My parents knew this was the best way to keep us safe: firearms are not toys; they are dangerous if handled improperly. It is negligent of any parent to possess a firearm and not properly educate his children about safe gun handling. Curious, uninformed kids are the ones who shoot each other by accident.
Like the Alamo defenders said in 1836, “COME AND TAKE IT!”
Just think if the GI’s at that Fort Hood processing center had been armed; at least the NCO’s and Officers? Hasan would have been cut down in seconds.
If you aren’t already an NRA member you might consider joining, they are the sole advocate of Constitutional Amendment 2 which protects all the rest of our freedoms and the Constitution. Remember that any politician who will swear an oath with his hand on the Bible to uphold and defend the Constitution then turn around and break that oath before the echo of their words have left the swearing in process will actively subvert and confiscate all our freedoms.
Do the adoption agaencies also ask if anyone in the house has a criminal record or associates with anyone that does? I suppose they ask many, many questions. However gun ownership should not be a question. A gunowner can be a very responsible person.
Thank you so much all of you for sharing and
your input.
I agree too, if they had been armed at the
base it would have had a different outcome
for sure.