Veterans Receive Letters From VA Prohibiting Ownership or Purchase of Firearms

This must be Barack Obama’s way of thanking our veterans for serving.
US veterans are receiving letters from the government informing them that they are disabled and not allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm. If the veteran does decide to purchase a firearm he will by fined, imprisoned or both.
This comes on page 2 of the VA letter.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...rohibiting-ownership-or-purchase-of-firearms/

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eye95 said:

<snip> BTW, the article points to the possibility of a physical defect causing an adjudication. Where does the letter say this? If it does, then the VA IS clearly acting outside the scope of the current law which does not remove the RKBA for physical defects, only mental defects. The lefties should be rising up against this one because it is discrimination against the handicapped. If someone is physically incapable of using a firearm in a typical manner, then a reasonable accommodation must be made so that he can fire a gun with eye-movements (or breathing into a tube) if necessary!

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What Information Did We Receive? ..... This evidence indicates that you are not able to handle your VA benefit payments because of a physical or mental condition.

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What Will We Do with This Information? We propose to rate you incompetent for VA purposes.

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What happen If You Are Rated Incompetent? [go to page two of the letter to read the "gun" part].

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eye95 said:

The letter is not the problem.

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OC for ME said:

You must click here and then go to the bottom of the article. Then select the provided image(s) to read the letter.

Page one of the letter, second sentence.This sentence sets up the use of the term "evidence."

The term incompetent is now interjected for use in the letter. This ties evidence and competency together.

The evidence used to determine competency results in gun rights being revoked.

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Uber_Olafsun said:

I haven't got that letter but if I do it will be interesting as my only problem is a bad knee from letting the military try to fix my acl twice that my knee now sounds like a pepper grinder.

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TheBlaze reached out to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for more insight but has not heard back yet. From what we found on its website, the VA’s Fiduciary Program was established to “protect veterans and beneficiaries who are unable to manage their VA benefits through the appointment and oversight of a fiduciary.”

Under the program — and as stated in the letter — if a person is deemed incompetent — which could be due to injury, disease or mental illness — and unable manage benefit payments, someone can be named as a fiduciary to do so for them. This person, the website states, is generally a family member but court-appointed or professional fiduciaries are possible as well (therefore Connelly’s assertion that a “stranger” be named is technically possible, but not the rule).

The counterargument, however, might sound something like this: If a person is rated as too incompetent to handle their own benefit payments, might it be a good time to consider other things that might not be advisable for the person to handle?

The VA states on its Fiduciary Program website, according to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, being determined as unable to manage benefits then prevents you from “purchasing, possessing, receiving or transporting a firearm or ammunition.” This act was signed into law in 1993.

As TheBlaze reported in December 2012, some congress members and others want this law changed:

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sought to amend the bill to stop the Veterans Affairs Department from putting the names of veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their finances into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which prohibits them from buying or owning firearms.

[...]

“We consider it an abject tragedy that so many of our veterans return home, after risking life and limb to defend our freedom, only to be stripped of their Second Amendment rights because they need help managing their compensation,” Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, wrote last year in an editorial.

But Connelly in his piece on Red Flag News takes issue with the fact that the letter doesn’t specify how incompetency is determined.

“In every state in the United States no one can be declared incompetent to administer their own affairs without due process of law and that usually requires a judicial hearing with evidence being offered to prove to a judge that the person is indeed incompetent,” Connelly wrote.

The VA’s Fiduciary Program website doesn’t delve into this either. It does state that a person has the right to appeal his or her fiduciary if he or she disagrees with the fiduciary selection. This does not seem to imply that the classification of incompetency is appealable though.

Finding information about how veterans are evaluated for competency is hard to come by. A document detailing a job description for someone who would evaluate veteran claims, last revised in 2009, seems to give some insight (emphasis added):

The initial examiner develops evidence which would establish that the veteran’s actions are such that he cannot conduct himself in a rational manner. Guides are far from precise and considerable imagination is required to ferret out the kind of evidence upon which to base a sound conclusion. However, the primary knowledge requirement is that of understanding the manifestations of mental diseases. The rating board makes the decisions as to competency. Decisions of the VA in matters of competency may vary from court determinations and have a most important bearing on the right to receive benefits. If a beneficiary is judged to be incompetent, the examiner must seek further evidence to determine who should receive the monetary award due.

Connelly in his post stated that USJF will be filing a Freedom of Information Act Request to the VA in an effort to obtain the criteria used to determine competency, which might therefore be “plac[ing] veterans on the background check list that keeps them from exercising their Second Amendment rights.”

It should also be pointed out that the VA website says being deemed incompetent to manage benefits does not affect non-VA finances or the person’s right to vote.

Still, Connelly questions “who will be next”?

“If you are receiving a Social Security check will you get one of these letters? Will the government declare that you are incompetent because of your age and therefore banned from firearm ownership?” Connelly wrote. “It certainly fits in with the philosophy and plans of the Obama administration. It is also certain that our military veterans don’t deserve this and neither do any other Americans.”

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Guides are far from precise and considerable imagination is required to ferret out the kind of evidence upon which to base a sound conclusion.

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palerider116 said:

It's wise to disarm the veterans. They are trained well. Government must preserve itself.

Our veterans deserve better though. They may suffer from acute stress disorder or PTSD but that is inherent to fighting wars that are a decade plus. No other country has had that much skin in the game in the past 10 years.

Thank you all

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OC for ME said:

The letter posted on the web site states that they received a report from the Portland OR VA Hospital. The report is then classified as evidence. The letter states that the evidence is explained (contained) within the letter, it is not. There is a air of "legality" in the wording of the letter.

That document is a administrative determination regarding a administrative process. Anyone who receives this type of letter from the VA must contact a attorney. The determination of the VA is not a legal finding.

This issue is far more than just losing your 2A right. Consider the affect on every aspect of your life if a federal bureaucracy determines that you are unable to "handle" your affairs re VA benefits. How then could you be reasonably expected to handle any of your affairs.

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