Disgraced General Argues Against Due Process For Military Veterans

Disgraced former General and CIA director David Petraeus has shamefully come out against a bill restoring an Obama-era executive order that stripped away gun rights away military veterans without due process.

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A coalition of retired admirals and generals, including former CIA director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, are protesting “irresponsible and dangerous” legislation they say would put mentally ill veterans in harm’s way by giving them easy access to firearms.

The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act would prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting veterans’ records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System after they’ve been deemed incapable of managing their financial affairs because of a disabling mental disorder. The bill would prohibit the VA from considering such veterans “mentally defective” without a magistrate or judicial authority ruling that the beneficiary is a danger to himself or herself or others.

In a Tuesday letter, members of the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense urged House and Senate leaders to oppose the bill. The House is expected to take it up on Thursday.

“The bill you are debating comes at a time when an average of 20 veterans commit suicide each day, two-thirds of whom do so by using a firearm. We know that non-deployed veterans are at a 61 percent higher risk of suicide compared to the American civilian population, and deployed veterans are at a 41 percent higher risk,” they wrote. “When vulnerable veterans have access to firearms, they can do harm not only to themselves but also to family members and loved ones. The impact of these tragedies is felt in communities across our nation.”

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Veterans Coalition for Common Sense is a spin-off of gun control group Americans For Responsible Solutions that seeks to trade on the allegedly credibility of former military personnel who have a very poor understanding of the Constitution they dedicated their lives to defending.

Both this attack on veterans by Obama and a similar one on Social Security recipients were blanket bans on the ownership of firearms by Americans simply because someone else is responsible for managing their money. In neither circumstance were affected individuals given due process to defend their rights as individuals.

Maybe Petraeus and his other failed former military allies are fine with collective punishment of people without a trial, but real Americans are not.

The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act championed by the National Rifle Association would restore the rights of 174,000 service personnel, so that they could be treated fairly and have their cases determined individually, as Americans should always have their cases decided.

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