UPDATE ON VETERANS’ GUN
RIGHTS ISSUE
MichaelConnelly.Jigsy.com
Our investigation into
the plight of our military veterans and the assault
on their Second and Fifth Amendment rights continues
to uncover a disturbing pattern that confirms that
the VA is violating the Constitutional rights of
America’s heroes on a daily basis. The investigation
included two separate requests to the VA under the
federal Freedom of Information Act. We asked for the
criteria used for appointing a fiduciary for
veterans to handle their financial affairs and for
information on the criteria for adding such veterans
to the list of Americans ineligible to buy firearms.
The legal deadline for a response from the VA has
passed and our requests have been totally ignored.
This does not surprise me because it is obvious that
the VA has much to hide.
Between the information
we are receiving from veterans around the country
and our research of the law and history of the VA
fiduciary program we have come up with a timeline of
what has happened and is happening to our veterans.
While the VA fiduciary program has been in place for
years it was designed to appoint someone, usually a
family member, to handle the VA payments for
veterans who were unable to handle these financial
matters themselves because of some type of severe
mental problems such as dementia.
There have been problems
with the system from the beginning, but the problems
regarding the Second amendment rights of veterans
are much more recent. In 1993 Congress passed the
Brady Bill that mandated a national background check
system that was designed to keep convicted felons
and those individuals declared mentally defective
and found to be a danger to themselves or others
from being able to legally purchase firearms.
In 2007 the Congress
passed some ill advised amendments to the National
Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The
amendments were in response to the Virginia Tech
shooting, (which did not involve a veteran) and were
designed to make sure that people adjudicated to be
“mentally defective” were on the list. However, the
disqualification criteria remained the same, a
person had to be found to be a danger to themselves
or others or “lacks the mental capacity to contract
or manage his own affairs.”
Since that amendment was
adopted the VA has decided that all veterans that it
declares “incompetent” to handle their VA payments
are also ineligible to purchase or own firearms.
There is absolutely nothing in the NICS
criteria that states that those with physical
disabilities belong on the list of individuals
prohibited from owning firearms, yet the VA
specifically states in their letter to veterans that
this is part of their criteria. In addition, our
investigation has found that the VA is using reasons
such as minor depression, minor PTSD, and even minor
short term memory loss as grounds for declaring
veterans “mentally defective.”
In some
cases, the veterans are not even given a reason.
It has also become clear
that there has been a rapid acceleration over the
last few years in the efforts by the VA to declare
veterans incompetent and deny them the right to
possess firearms. Veterans who go to the VA for
routine checkups or for treatment of physical
illnesses are routinely asked if they own firearms.
In fact, this in apparently a required question that
all VA employees must ask of all veterans.
In other words,
virtually anything can trigger an attempt by the VA
to declare a veteran incompetent and deny them their
Second Amendment rights. The Constitutional
requirements of due process are completely ignored
and veterans must fight this on their own at their
own expense. To make matters even worse, we are
receiving reports from veterans that if they even
attempt to resist the declaration of incompetence,
the VA is threatening to, and in some cases actually
withholding the monetary payments to the veterans
unless they agree to the VA declaration.
Our research has
determined that there are at least four separate
categories of veterans that the United States
Justice Foundation needs to represent in either
administrative actions or in court. They are:
1.
Veterans who have received a letter from the VA
threatening to declare them incompetent, but no
decision on competence have been finalized.
2.
Veterans who have received the letter and been
declared incompetent and added to NICS list for
unjust reasons.
3.
Veterans who have been declared incompetent and had
it reversed, but are still on the NICS list.
4.
Veterans who have received the VA letter and are
having their VA funds withheld because they are
fighting to keep from being declared incompetent.
The
situation with the veterans and their rights has not
gone completely unnoticed in Congress. Last year an
amendment was offered in the Senate to the 2013
National Defense Authorization Act to stop the VA
from arbitrarily adding veterans to the NICS list.
It was opposed by the White House and failed to
pass. Just a few weeks ago Senator Richard Burr of
North Carolina introduced S 572, the “Veterans
Second Amendment Protection Act”. It is a good piece
of legislation to protect veterans and all members
of Congress should be urged to support it.
Unfortunately, so far only 11 Senators have signed
on as co-sponsors and none of them are Democrats.
In the
meantime, any veterans with information on this or
who need help should contact me immediately at
usjf.net.
mrobertc@hotmail.com
Michael Connelly blog
www.usjf.net
Constitutional Law Alliance