Posted on 04/05/2016 7:12:53 PM PDT by kitchen
Two Senate Republicans are seeking to understand the Veterans Affairs office practice of reporting veterans to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check system.
Currently a veterans assigned a fiduciary trustee to act on their behalf is automatically declared “mentally defective” and is reported to NICS, the database Federal Firearms Licensees use to determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy guns. As of December 2015, the VA has reported 260,381 individuals to the FBI, effectively making them prohibited firearms possessors under the law.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa lawmaker who is currently the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, finds this unacceptable.
“Our military heroes risked their lives to protect and defend this country and all that we stand for, including our most basic constitutional rights,” said Grassley in a statement. “Now the very agency created to serve them is jeopardizing their Second Amendment rights through an erroneous reading of gun regulations. The VA’s careless approach to our veterans’ constitutional rights is disgraceful.”
In an effort to fix the issue, Grassley, along with Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., penned a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald last week and another to the subcommittee over the agency’s funding, questioning the practice.
Making a due process argument, the lawmakers argue the VA uses the fiduciary trustee status of a veteran to regulate firearms possession without ever seeking to find out if the service member is a danger to themselves or others.
“The use of the VA regulation, adopted for a totally unrelated purpose, is suspect, especially in light of the Supreme Court holding that the Second Amendment is a fundamental right,” reads the letter to McDonald. “That holding changed the legal calculus by which a regulatory scheme can survive constitutional scrutiny and it is not clear how these regulations would fare under that increased scrutiny.”
Demanding answers, the senators want the VA to explain the process which now supplies over 99 percent of the individuals reported as being “mentally defective” to NICS and how they satisfy the constitutional argument.
A similar standard has been proposed by the Social Security Administration to strip gun rights from as many as 75,000 beneficiaries per year according to figures released by the White House in January.
The VA doesn’t want to be held accountable for their (in)actions....
Of course, ordered by the Democrats. HRH George III didn’t fare so well when he tried to seize the colonists’ firearms at Lexington, and paid the price on the road back to Concord.
These vets have 100% disability for mental disorders and have been adjudged by multiple doctors as incapable of receiving their own check and administering their own affairs.
Do you want them to have guns?
If a veteran admits to any kind of PTSD in private with his/her VA doctor they will lose their 2nd amendment rights.
Obama in action.
Vets will learn.
260,000?
Dems hate vets and guns.
Dems hate vets and guns.
I just verbalized it for you.
One day I will have to explain it to the neighbors.
Vets ping.
“I am at a loss for words acceptable in polite company. “
Me too! We’re retired, believe in the 2A, and so now, we have to take a hard look at every interaction we have that has the prospect of connecting us in any way to our government. That includes SSA, Medicare, our doctors and other healthcare functionaries and law enforcement, all of whom have a vested interest in depriving both of us of our 2A rights. The government knows that us retired folks are old enough and smart enough to realize they do not wish us well!
The problem is the VA choosing of their own volition to report vets to NCIS who were not intended reportees under the regulation.
They y have been judged as neither a danger to themselves or others and are still being reported. Those are the conditions, where they exist, under which such reporting should be made.
Complex and unclear. An infacility with numbers does not equal one with arms.
“These vets have 100% disability for mental disorders and have been adjudged by multiple doctors as incapable of receiving their own check and administering their own affairs. “
No. They have only been adjudged to be unable to handle their financial affairs.
Is this happening Nation wide
OR lefty States?
You are not in the know as to what is going on here.
If someone merely says they are depressed they take away their gun rights.
Dont know where the Constitution allows for that to occur.
It is very hard to get to the point where you have to have a fiduciary, whether in private practice or the VA.
Not true. There are many veterans who have PTSD and have their weapons even while they are being treated.
Moreover , unless the vet signs a release of information, the VA can’t communicate with anyone else.HPPA violation and the VA could get sued big time.
You may be lacking facts here. It is very difficult for the VA to talk to anyone outside the VA without a release.
Well, the GOP sent another strongly-worded letter, so there's that.
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