Posted on 10/11/2007 5:20:46 PM PDT by Vets_Husband_and_Wife
Here is a copy of the first article I read, but I will address what I found out from Senators Boxers office and Sen. Fienstiens office today (10/11/07). I know this has been posted here before, BUT, it has now PASSED in Congress!
Read on:
Veterans Disarmament Act To Bar Vets From Owning Guns Larry Pratt
Sunday September 23, 2007
Hundreds of thousands of veterans -- from Vietnam through Operation Iraqi Freedom -- are at risk of being banned from buying firearms if legislation that is pending in Congress gets enacted.
How? The Veterans Disarmament Act -- which has already passed the House -- would place any veteran who has ever been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the federal gun ban list.
This is exactly what President Bill Clinton did over seven years ago when his administration illegitimately added some 83,000 veterans into the National Criminal Information System (NICS system) -- prohibiting them from purchasing firearms, simply because of afflictions like PTSD.
The proposed ban is actually broader. Anyone who is diagnosed as being a tiny danger to himself or others would have his gun rights taken away ... forever. It is section 102((1)©(iv) in HR 2640 that provides for dumping raw medical records into the system.
Those names -- like the 83,000 records mentioned above -- will then, by law, serve as the basis for gun banning.
No wonder the Military Order of the Purple Heart is opposed to this legislation. The House bill, HR 2640, is being sponsored by one of the most flaming anti-Second Amendment Representatives in Congress: Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).
Another liberal anti-gunner, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
Proponents of the bill say that helpful amendments have been made so that any veteran who gets his name on the NICS list can seek an expungement.
But whenever you talk about expunging names from the Brady NICS system, you're talking about a procedure that has always been a long shot. Right now, there are NO EXPUNGEMENTS of law-abiding Americans' names that are taking place under federal level.
Why? Because the expungement process which already exists has been blocked for over a decade by a "funds cut-off" engineered by another anti-gunner, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).
So how will this bill make things even worse?
Well, two legal terms are radically redefined in the Veterans Disarmament Act to carry out this vicious attack on Veterans' gun rights.
One term relates to who is classified a "mental defective." Forty years ago that term meant one was adjudicated "not guilty" in a court of law by reason of insanity. But under the Veterans Disarmament Act, "mental defective" has been stretched to include anyone whom a psychiatrist determines might be a tiny danger to self or others.
The second term is "adjudicate." In the past, one could only lose one's gun rights through an adjudication by a judge, magistrate or court -- meaning conviction after a trial. Adjudication could only occur in a court with all the protections of due process, including the right to face one's accuser.
Now, adjudication in HR 2640 would include a finding by "a court, commission, committee or other authorized person" (namely, a psychiatrist).
Forget the fact that people with PTSD have the same violent crime rate as the rest of us. Vietnam vets with PTSD have had careers and obtained permits to carry firearms concealed.
It will now be enough for a psychiatric diagnosis (a "determination" in the language of the bill) to get a veteran barred for life from owning guns.
Think of what this bill would do to veterans. If a robber grabs your wallet and takes everything in it, but gives you back $5 to take the bus home, would you call that a financial enhancement? If not, then we should not let HR 2640 supporters call the permission to seek an expungement an enhancement, when prior to this bill, veterans could not legitimately be denied their gun rights after being diagnosed with PTSD.
Veterans with PTSD should not be put in a position to seek an expungement. They have not been convicted (after a trial with due process) of doing anything wrong.
If a veteran is thought to be a threat to self or others, there should be a real trial, not an opinion (called a diagnosis) by a psychiatrist.
If members of Congress do not hear from soldiers (active duty and retired) in large numbers, along with the rest of the public, the Veterans Disarmament Act -- misleadingly titled by Rep. McCarthy as the NICS Improvement Amendments Act -- will send this message to veterans: "No good deed goes unpunished."
If members of Congress do not hear from soldiers (active duty and retired) in large numbers, along with the rest of the public, the Veterans Disarmament Act -- misleadingly titled by Rep. McCarthy as the NICS Improvement Amendments Act -- will send this message to veterans: "No good deed goes unpunished."
Is this the bill (whatever the title may be)that the NRA pushed or let through?
How can this be Constitutional?!?!
BTTT!
It couldn’t be. Not the way this article is written.
You can thank the NRA for helping to push this abomination through.
NRA = Not Really Americans.
The NRA is behind this piece of crap.
Shal not be infringed is too tough for these fools to understand.
Dammit!
More here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1901053/posts
I can’t find anything that says it has passed the Senate, but I don’t doubt it.
It has passed the house by voice vote, so no record of the traitors.
Evidently NRA supports it and claims it will not do what GOA says. More analysis here: http://republicanmichigander.blogspot.com/2007/06/gun-bill-passes-house-hr2640.html
Here is Thomas on the bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.02640:
Links are a few days old, so the Thomas links may not work today.
Here’s another: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2640
BTT! bookmark for later
I am beyond disgusted.
TANKS AuntB...
If a “PTSD” tag will prevent ownership of a gun then all
rape/crime victims/?/etc. will not be able to own a gun...
Not just Vets...
I’ll be on the phone tomorrow...:0/
I’m a veteran....
This is terrible.....
I’ll call my TN US Congressman Zach Wamp in the morning...
Ping
Well I guess this bill would rule out the continued armed deployment of any soldier who has been subject to "traumatic stress" - i.e., battle. At one battle limit per soldier, the Army is gonna need an awful lot of recruits if it has to actually fight a war.I'm curious as to the position of John McCain (R,Hanoi Hilton) on this issue . . .
...would place any veteran who has ever been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the federal gun ban list.
There is something that bothers me about this beyond what was in the article.
All cases of PTSD do not present themselves in the Hollywood manner. We're not all raging nutcase killers. All PTSD cases have not been declared a danger to themselves or others. Will all diagnosed as having PTSD be lumped together? How about the thousands of non-veterans who have been diagnosed after a disaster?
“They” understand it alright. It is the people who supposedly defend the 2nd Amendment who don’t get it. If you give in to demands to have ANY restriction on the right to bear arms, then you essentially give up that fundamental right.
With the anti-military sentiment here in the Twin Cities, would not surprise me if some bureaucrat made a blanket judgement covering all veterans.
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