With the Social Security gun ban repealed and the lead ammunition ban revoked, the GOP-led House is now eyeing a repeal of the gun ban for U.S. military veterans.
The gun ban for military veterans works in the same way the Social Security gun ban was designed to work, and was actually a precursor to the Social Security ban.
In the Social Security ban, the Social Security Administration (SSA) could investigate beneficiaries who were under mental duress and needed help managing their finances. Following the investigation, the beneficiaries could be turned over to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and prohibited from making firearm purchases. In the gun ban for military veterans, the Veterans Administration does the investigation of military personnel receiving disability benefits. If the VA declares said recipients “incompetent,” those recipients are turned over NICS and barred from buying firearms.
In the gun ban for military veterans, the Veterans Administration does the investigation of military personnel receiving disability benefits. If the VA declares said recipients “incompetent,” those recipients are turned over to NICS and barred from buying firearms.
As seen with the Social Security gun ban, the gun ban for military veterans operates by using the broad language of mental health to deny natural rights to those who served our country in uniform.
The NRA-ILA reports that military veterans turned over to NICS are “subject to a lifetime ban on the acquisition and possession of firearms, unless he or she successfully petitions for ‘relief from disabilities.’”
The legislation that will end the gun ban for military veterans is House Committee on Veteran Affairs chairman Phil Roe’s (R-TN-1) Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act. Roe’s Act has already passed in committee and will be taken up by the full house as early as this week.
On December 5, 2012, Breitbart News reported that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was supporting an amendment to strip gun rights from military veterans via the language of mental health. Schumer defended the action, saying, “If you are mentally ill, whether you’re a veteran or not, just like if you’re a felon, if you’re a veteran or not, and you have been judged mentally infirm, you should not have a gun.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.