Veterans who require a fiduciary trustee to help them manage their financial affairs are considered by the Veterans Administration’s Veterans Affairs division to be “mentally defective.” Having been so judged, they are, under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, reported to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a computerized database which prohibits them from purchasing firearms.
Why aren’t people who hire accountants to help them do their taxes also considered mentally defective since they can’t manage their financial affairs alone? A bill to remedy this absurd situation has been authored, and it should warm the cockles of everyone’s heart to know that it is, you know, bipartisan:
Sen. Burr, a Republican from North Carolina has joined with Democrat Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia to introduce the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, which would require a judicial authority to determine whether VA beneficiaries pose a danger to themselves or others before they can be added to the FBI’s NICS database.
“As a matter of fairness, a veteran should be permitted to purchase a firearm under the same conditions as every other American,” said Sen. Webb. “This bipartisan bill ensures consistent guidelines are used for reporting citizens to the FBI, and that no veteran is needlessly stripped of their Second Amendment rights.”
