The Obama administration is facing congressional scrutiny for blocking more than a quarter-million military veterans from owning guns.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has reported more than 257,000 former members of the military who cannot manage their finances to the FBI’s list of people who are not allowed to own guns, Republicans claim, even though “it has nothing to do with regulating firearms.”
“The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is effectively a national gun ban list and placement on the list precludes the ownership and possession of firearms,” Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote in a recent letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald.
The VA is responsible for appointing a fiduciary to help veterans who it determines cannot manage their own finances, but the agency is also taking the additional step of reporting these veterans to the “mental defective” category of the FBI’s background check system, even if they do not pose a danger to society, the senators allege.
The senators called the practice “highly suspect” and said veterans’ ability to manage their own finances is “totally unrelated” to whether they should be prohibited from owning a gun.
“Under the current practice, a VA finding that concludes a veteran requires a fiduciary to administer benefit payments effectively voids his Second Amendment rights,” the senators wrote.
“At no time in the process does the VA determine a veteran to be a danger to themself or others, a key determinant for whether someone is a ‘mental defective,’ precluding the right to own firearms,” they added.
In a separate letter to Senate appropriators, Grassley requested lawmakers block the VA from continuing this practice in the upcoming budget negotiations.
Grassley also complained about the practice in another letter sent last year to the Justice Department.
Republicans hope the congressional inquiries will pressure the VA to stop the practice.
“From time to time, media has reported that VA ‘confiscates’ veterans’ firearms,” a VA spokesman said in a statement. “This is simply not true. VA has no authority to confiscate or ‘seize’ anyone’s firearms.”
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The VA has no authority to trample their 2A rights either, but that’s not stopping them.
Who didn’t see this coming months ago when they first started talking about getting guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable?? They can’t find the real culprits who will become mass murderers, but our veterans are already at the mercy of the VA so they further torment them.
We’re probably the only country in the world that allows a corrupt agency to punish veterans that went to battle for us. And all the Republicans do is hope. How about taking some action you worthless slugs!?!?
~Kathy
Categories: Political
Pesky Truth 
On a day when we also posted “A Soldier Died Today,” and reflected on how appropriate it is to treat our veterans with respect, we come to this.
Apparently, when a veteran grows older and isn’t quite as sharp mentally and finds it complicated and difficult to navigate the waters of our confusing financial systems, he/she deserves to have his/her 2nd Amendment rights taken away.
At least that’s the way that the gun grabbers see it. They will, as we’ve so often warned, take another step in their quest to take away our guns. According to the VA, if a fiduciary (a trusted “assistant” who acts on behalf of a person in financial matters) is named, the veteran is deemed to be “mentally defective,” and being “mentally defective” means they no longer have their Constitutional rights? Can they no longer speak out? Will they be allowed to vote?
I wonder how many members of Congress have financial advisors who act as “fiduciaries”? The difference is that Congress hasn’t fallen under the control of the VA, even though there’s ample evidence that many are mentally defective.
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Good one, Garnet! If Congress were under the VA, the whole thing would have been fixed long ago.
First, the VA puts them on mind-altering drugs, and then when they can’t function properly, they slap them onto the list. First they screw them up, then they punish them for being screwed up.
Basically it comes down to who’s better at juggling the bills and managing the checkbook. If the wife, girl friend, sister, mother…whoever, is taking care of things, then the poor vet is dubbed incompetent. The VA isn’t about care for out vets, they’re about control of them, and it stinks to high heaven that this is condoned, let alone the new path to gun control.
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Worthless slugs is right! Republicans in congress are totally worthless. We must all pray and volunteer for Cruz in this eleciton. We might have some semblence of return if our GOD given rights.
This whole subject makes me nauseous.
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Nauseous is a good word, tannngl. To see our vets treated this way is shameful and should have ended when the scandal first came up. Instead of fixing it, the O admin gives them more authority. Man, have we got some house cleaning to do!!
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This administration is a scourge against freedom on every level.
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So true, Curtis. Everyone in the top 20% of employees at the VA need firing, instead they dummy up the numbers on their reports and get their bonuses. All the oversight hearings and testimony does zero good because they have no authority to make changes.
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