Disarming Veterans

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.

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eye95 said:

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.

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eye95 said:

Since that amendment was adopted [2007 NICS amendment] the VA has decided that all veterans that it declares “incompetent” to handle their VA payments are also ineligible to purchase or own firearms.

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eye95 said:

Thank you for the courtesy of providing an FUQ since the OP did not.

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sharkey said:

Yes and no.

If you required a fiduciary to pay your bills are you still competent to carry?

I'm not sure what physical disability could prevent you from paying your bills in today's day and age. I imagine even Stephen Hawking could pay his bills but a firearm would be useless to him. (Unless it was incorporated into his chair which would be cool!)

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DamonK said:

Here's the thing about that. They can assign one to you whether you ask or not. Like in my case, I have a head injury. I forget stuff like words and organization type stuff sometimes. I'm still perfectly capable of carrying responsibly. But if they notice that I'm having a hard time keeping my finances organized, or miss a couple appts and that's it, not more competency for me. And this without a doctor or judge ever looking at it.

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We-the-People said:

And there lies the unconstitutionality. Due Process is required if the state wants to deprive a citizen of their rights. Due Process requires the judicial system, not a bureaucratic decision by who knows who.

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DamonK said:

Here's the thing about that. They can assign one to you whether you ask or not. Like in my case, I have a head injury. I forget stuff like words and organization type stuff sometimes. I'm still perfectly capable of carrying responsibly. But if they notice that I'm having a hard time keeping my finances organized, or miss a couple appts and that's it, not more competency for me. And this without a doctor or judge ever looking at it.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

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HeroHog said:

What is a "FUQ"?

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