The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has taken a major new step to protect the Second Amendment rights of veterans.
In a release, VA said it would not report veterans to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System as “prohibited persons” only because they need help from a fiduciary in managing their VA benefits.
“Many Americans struggle with managing their finances, and veterans’ Second Amendment rights shouldn’t be stripped just because they need help in this area,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins in a statement. “But for too long, veterans who needed the services of a VA fiduciary were deprived of their right to bear arms. Under the leadership of President Trump, we’re correcting this injustice and ensuring veterans get the same due-process and constitutional rights as all Americans.”
The Trump VA argued that many veterans had been deprived of their Second Amendment rights without hearings or adequate determinations that they posed a sufficient risk of danger to themselves or others after a thorough review, according to the release.
In consultation with the Department of Justice, VA determined the practice violated both the Gun Control Act and Veterans’ Second Amendment rights.
Federal law mandates that a decision by a judicial or quasi-judicial body is needed before someone can be reported to NICS.
According to VA, the move corrects a three-decade-old wrong that deprived thousands of veterans in its Fiduciary Program of their constitutional right to own a firearm without a legal basis.
The DOJ supports the action.
“It is both unlawful and unacceptable for veterans who serve our country to have their constitutional rights threatened,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. “It has been my pleasure to partner with Secretary Collins on this project, and I am directing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to review its regulations and propose changes that will prevent current and future violations of our veterans’ Second Amendment rights.”
In addition to immediately stopping the reporting of VA Fiduciary Program participants to NICS, VA is working with the FBI to remove all past VA reporting from NICS, so no veterans are unfairly deprived of their Second Amendment rights based solely on participation in VA’s Fiduciary Program.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.