- Comment
- John Dubyna
- wdsharpe@earthlink.net
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- The following email was sent to me with permission to
repost because of the need for veterans to get a clear understanding of
how they're not affected by this so-called 'Veterans Disarmament Act'..
-
- John
-
- There is NO such bill as the "Veterans Disarmament
Act"....it doesn't exist.
-
- The bill this person is referring to is H.R. 2640 which
would just continue certain policies...and, actually, protect many veterans.
-
- It would require government agencies and states to provide
NCIC with names of persons who have a "court order" denying them
the right to buy a firearm, who have been legally declared a "mental
defective" or who have been "committed to a mental institution",
and those convicted of a "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence."
-
- This is all pretty standard stuff and has been going
on for years.
-
- This has NOTHING to do with PTSD. In fact, PTSD patients
are protected....see (C) below. A medical diagnosis does NOT get a vet
on the list. The protections are all listed below from the bill. And,
the states would be required to update this info on a quarterly basis.
-
- (1) IN GENERAL- No department or agency of the
Federal Government may provide to the Attorney General any record of an
adjudication or determination related to the mental health of a person,
or any commitment of a person to a mental institution if--
-
- (A) the adjudication, determination, or commitment, respectively,
has been set aside or expunged, or the person has otherwise been fully
released or discharged from all mandatory treatment, supervision, or monitoring;
-
- (B) the person has been found by a court, board, commission,
or other lawful authority to no longer suffer from the mental health condition
that was the basis of the adjudication, determination, or commitment, respectively,
or has otherwise been found to be rehabilitated through any procedure available
under law; or
-
- (C) the adjudication, determination, or commitment, respectively,
is based solely on a medical finding of disability, without a finding that
the person is a danger to himself or to others or that the person lacks
the mental capacity to manage his own affairs.
-
- The legislation would actually give veterans, and others,
the chance to get off the NCIC list if they were put on it in the past.
This is a major step forward.
-
- I am NOT a believer in gun control. I, like many veterans,
keep a legal weapon in my home. So, I am disappointed that the person
who wrote this article is distorting the facts. We do NOT need misinformation
like this making the rounds in the veterans' community.
-
- Larry Scott
- Founder & Editor
- VA Watchdog dot Org
- www.vawatchdog.org
-
- ------
-
- Original Article:
-
- Hundreds of thousands of veterans -- from Vietnam through
Operation Iraqi Freedom -- are at risk of being banned from buying firearms
if legislation that is pending in Congress gets enacted.
-
- How? The Veterans Disarmament Act -- which has already
passed the House -- would place any veteran who has ever been diagnosed
with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the federal gun ban list.
-
- This is exactly what President Bill Clinton did over
seven years ago when his administration illegitimately added some 83,000
veterans into the National Criminal Information System (NICS system) --
prohibiting them from purchasing firearms, simply because of afflictions
like PTSD.
-
- The proposed ban is actually broader. Anyone who is diagnosed
as being a tiny danger to himself or others would have his gun rights taken
away ... forever. It is section 102(b)(1)(C)(iv) in HR 2640 that provides
for dumping raw medical records into the system. Those names -- like the
83,000 records mentioned above -- will then, by law, serve as the basis
for gun banning.
-
- No wonder the Military Order of the Purple Heart is opposed
to this legislation.
-
- The House bill, HR 2640, is being sponsored by one of
the most flaming anti-Second Amendment Representatives in Congress: Carolyn
McCarthy (D-NY). Another liberal anti-gunner, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT),
is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
-
- Proponents of the bill say that helpful amendments have
been made so that any veteran who gets his name on the NICS list can seek
an expungement.
-
- But whenever you talk about expunging names from the
Brady NICS system, you're talking about a procedure that has always been
a long shot. Right now, there are NO EXPUNGEMENTS of law-abiding Americans'
names that are taking place under federal level. Why? Because the expungement
process which already exists has been blocked for over a decade by a "funds
cut-off" engineered by another anti-gunner, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).
-
- So how will this bill make things even worse? Well, two
legal terms are radically redefined in the Veterans Disarmament Act to
carry out this vicious attack on veterans' gun rights.
-
- One term relates to who is classified a "mental
defective." Forty years ago that term meant one was adjudicated "not
guilty" in a court of law by reason of insanity. But under the Veterans
Disarmament Act, "mental defective" has been stretched to include
anyone whom a psychiatrist determines might be a tiny danger to self or
others.
-
- The second term is "adjudicate." In the past,
one could only lose one's gun rights through an adjudication by a judge,
magistrate or court -- meaning conviction after a trial. Adjudication could
only occur in a court with all the protections of due process, including
the right to face one's accuser. Now, adjudication in HR 2640 would include
a finding by "a court, commission, committee or other authorized person"
(namely, a psychiatrist).
-
- Forget the fact that people with PTSD have the same violent
crime rate as the rest of us. Vietnam vets with PTSD have had careers and
obtained permits to carry firearms concealed. It will now be enough for
a psychiatric diagnosis (a "determination" in the language of
the bill) to get a veteran barred -for life - from owning guns.
-
- Think of what this bill would do to veterans. If a robber
grabs your wallet and takes everything in it, but gives you back $5 to
take the bus home, would you call that a financial enhancement? If not,
then we should not let HR 2640 supporters call the permission to seek an
expungement an enhancement, when prior to this bill, veterans could not
legitimately be denied their gun rights after being diagnosed with PTSD.
-
- Veterans with PTSD should not be put in a position to
seek an expungement. They have not been convicted (after a trial with due
process) of doing anything wrong. If a veteran is thought to be a threat
to self or others, there should be a real trial, not an opinion (called
a diagnosis) by a psychiatrist.
-
- If members of Congress do not hear from soldiers (active
duty and retired) in large numbers, along with the rest of the public,
the Veterans Disarmament Act -- misleadingly titled by Rep. McCarthy as
the NICS Improvement Amendments Act -- will send this message to veterans:
"No good deed goes unpunished."
-
- © 2007 Larry Pratt - All Rights Reserved
-
- Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of <http://www.gunowners.org/>Gun
Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization
of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom
to keep and bear arms.
-
- He published a book, Armed People Victorious, in 1990
and was editor of a book, Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution &
Militias, 1995. His latest book, On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense
of Liberty was published in 2001.
-
- The GOA web site is: gunowners.org. Pratt's weekly
talk show Live Fire is archived there at: www.gunowners.org/radio.htm
-
- ldpratt@gunowners.org
-
- Either Pratt or another GOA spokesman is available for
press interviews.
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