Former service members are having their Second Amendment rights stripped away by the VA simply for needing assistance with their financial matters.
The U.S. House of Representatives is addressing this atrocity, which last week held a hearing on the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act. As VA policy currently stands, a veteran who needs a financial fiduciary is automatically reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
This makes that person, who may be unable to balance a checkbook, ineligible to legally purchase, own or possess a firearm.
This is a ridiculously low bar to set for deeming a veteran as mentally incompetent.
And now the agency is on record not only opposing congressional oversight of its actions but flatly refusing to follow the law if it were to take effect.
Freebasenews.com noted that VA Deputy Under Secretary Glenn Powers told lawmakers last week that the agency stands against the protection of veterans’ gun rights. He claimed there are already procedures in place for wronged veterans to petition for redress against being stripped of their gun rights.
Then Powers reportedly went further. He brazenly told Congress, “VA did not err in reporting, and if passed into law, VA could not comply.”
Powers also noted a bill in the pipeline that would address the agency’s potential backing of “red flag” laws that commonly take away gun rights from citizens who have not been afforded due process protection. He claimed the proposal “places the security and safety of veterans at risk and ultimately prevents VA from providing appropriate care for some of our most vulnerable veterans.”
Never mind that laws duly passed by Congress are not a salad bar where government officials may pick and choose which they will honor and which they will ignore.
Such statements by the agency demonstrate blatant disregard for the constitutional rights of those it purports to serve.
One lawmaker, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), dryly noted that Powers and the VA are now on record asserting they will not abide by the law of the land.
“Well, I’m glad everybody hears that on the record — that the VA will refuse to comply regardless of what we actually pass here.”
The agency is in the midst of a six-month pause in turning veterans’ names over to the FBI’s national background check database. This action was taken in the face of pressure from lawmakers intent on protecting Second Amendment rights for those who served.
Federal law had required this action, and the pause did not change the mandate. Essentially, it temporarily blocks the agency from handing over the names without a court order or ruling directing the VA to do so.
Unlike many issues, this provision enjoys support from both sides of the political aisle. One of its primary proponents is Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT), who worked for several years to overturn the controversial practice.
Tester charged that some eligible veterans avoided applying to collect well-deserved benefits due to concerns over being stripped of their Second Amendment rights by the agency.
For the duration of the temporary pause, only former service members deemed by a court or magistrate to be mentally incompetent and an immediate threat to themselves or others will be turned over to NICS.
Congress now looks to make that change permanent, though at least one agency official rejected the VA’s compliance with the law.
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