The Department of Veterans Affairs is supposed to be a department that looks after the men and women who served this great nation. From education to medical help, it's supposed to have the backs of the veterans who have defended this country.
The problem is that, in a lot of ways, it's the enemy of the people its trying to help.
For one thing, VA healthcare has been jokingly referred to as "giving veterans a second chance to die for their country." It's only a semi-joke, though, because there isn't the best track record in that regard.
And, of course, there's the fact that when veterans need the help of a fiduciary, which is someone who manages their financial affairs, the VA decides that means they can't exercise their right to keep and bear arms.
Now, there's an effort to end that:
Second Amendment advocates are pushing Congress to pass legislation that would protect gun rights for veterans accused of being mentally incompetent by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Under current law, veterans seeking mental health treatment or assistance managing their finances by tapping into their benefits are often appointed a fiduciary by the VA, flagged as mentally incompetent, and reported to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. In turn, the FBI can prohibit them from owning a gun, a policy critics say places the label of mentally incompetent on veterans without a court order proving the claim and strips away Second Amendment freedoms without the constitutional right to due process.
Between 2018 and 2021, the VA added over 103,000 veterans to the NICS adjudicated mental health category. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent the VA a letter this week calling on the agency to release more details surrounding the NICS referrals, expressing concern that the bureaucracy has not been transparent with such information.
During an interview with the Washington Examiner, Mission Roll Call CEO Jim Whaley called on Congress to end the policy by passing legislation proposed by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and John Kennedy (R-LA) and Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL). The Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act requires a judicial court decision prior to NICS referral. Doing so guarantees the right to due process before prohibiting veterans from owing a firearm, lawmakers say.
Whaley, a 20-year Army veteran whose nonprofit group boasts around 1.6 million veteran members, highlighted a Mission Roll Call survey of veterans nationwide that found 83% support Congress changing the law to “protect veterans’ due process rights.”
“When somebody is seeking mental health care or for whatever reason, their finances are under somebody else controlling a fiduciary. They’re automatically enrolled into this program that the FBI has [the NICS],” he said. “The result is that they’re designated as mentally incompetent at that point, based solely on an administrative function, and so that leads to revocation of their Second Amendment rights.”
“That’s just wrong on so many levels. One is no judges involved with this, nobody making sure that it was done properly,” Whaley continued. “Why are we making it difficult, or putting a stigma to veterans getting mental health treatment? And that could be anything from, ‘Hey, I’ve had a bad dream. I’ve had some issues dealing with the situation.’ Doesn’t mean they’re suicidal, doesn’t mean they’re dangerous, but why would we make that stigma for them not to lose their Second Amendment rights?”
Perhaps more importantly, though, the bureaucrats within the VA lack the authority to strip anyone of their rights.
While some can be deemed incompetent and lose their Second Amendment rights, they must have due process via the courts. There, evidence can be presented for and against the person in question being competent, and a reasonable decision can be reached.
Someone sitting in an office at the VA is a different matter entirely. They're not a court of law and there's no opportunity for veterans to defend themselves. The best they can do is forego help they might well need, including a fiduciary.
This is wrong on every level.
These men and women swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Then they come home, many broken by decades of warfare, and find that the domestic enemy trying to undermine the Constitution is the very entity they're told to trust to look after them.
It never should have happened. The VA never should have had access to the NICS database.
Congress can correct this here and now.
