Under the law, there are times when people can be stripped of their gun rights. Felons, currently, as well as those "adjudicated as mentally defective." Now, we might debate which felons really deserve to be disarmed, few people take issue with those determined to be incompetent not having guns.
The problem we have, though, is that while it was intended for a court to determine that, bureaucrats at the VA have taken it upon themselves to do it as well.
Basically, any veteran who gets what's called a fiduciary to help them handle their benefits gets reported to the NICS and can no longer buy a firearm.
The issue, however, is that being determined by some guy at the VA that you can't handle your financial affairs--something that I can only barely do as it is, if we're being honest--isn't the same as being unable to function without adult supervision. It's not a case of being unable to determine right from wrong or anything of the sort.
To call it an issue is putting it mildly.
Now, the practice has been halted, but only temporarily. I could always come back.
Enter former Navy SEAL turned Congressman, Rep. Eli Crane.
My bill, H.R.496, restricts the VA from needlessly referring veterans to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) January 23, 2025
It also restores 2A rights to more than 270,000 veterans who were unlawfully targeted by Biden's VA.
Let's get it done. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/MTMqH99geW
This needs to happen.
I'm going to put on my veteran hat for a moment here and talk as someone who served.
We didn't put our name on the dotted line, willing to go wherever our nation needed us to go and potentially die in service to this great country, just so we could come home and later be stripped of the very rights we swore to defend.
As bad as that is, they're being stripped by the agency created expressly to help veterans.
Crane's bill seeks to end that once and for all.
And that needs to happen.
As things were, a lot of veterans would hold back asking for help they might well need, all in fear that they'd be stripped of their gun rights simply because some bureaucrat decided they couldn't be trusted. This wasn't the courts. This wasn't the result of a trial or any other court proceeding. This was some individuals at the VA deciding who got to keep their gun rights and who didn't.
That's not remotely how the system should work.
Yet because it did, how many veterans are suffering out of concern they'll lose their gun rights? No one should be afraid to ask for help, but it's holding some back, I promise you.
Now, the big question: Does Crane's bill have a hope in hell of passing?
Yeah, it does.
First, this doesn't expand gun rights really, which means there will be a bit less motivation on the part of Democrats to defeat it. Republicans control both the House and the Senate, so as long as leadership gives it a fair shot, I think it'll sail through the House. The only hiccup is that Democrats have the filibuster in the Senate still.
Yet this is a veterans' rights bill, really. This is about simply preventing a government entity from overstepping and stripping people of their rights. That's a lot harder sell to the American people, so I think you'll get a few Democrats willing, hopefully enough to at least keep the filibuster from holding this one up.
This isn't an expansion of rights, it's simply protecting certain people from them; a group that garners a lot of support still from the American people.
I have no doubts President Trump would sign it.
So yeah, there's a good chance this one will happen, and it needs to.
It's just a shame that it hadn't happened already. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. It probably will be, ultimately, but it shouldn't be.
