The nutshell version on which both sides agree goes something like this:<\/p>\n
Currently, the VA sends the names of veterans who have had fiduciaries assigned to handle their financial affairs to the FBI for inclusion on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. That’s about 116,000 veterans as things stand now.<\/p>\n
The controversy comes in determining whether someone who needs a fiduciary to deal with money matters is unfit to own a firearm.<\/p>\n
“This standard is completely consistent with the regulations implementing the federal Gun Control Act and is one of the standards used by states for determining who is prohibited from possessing a firearm based on mental disability,” Wimmer wrote in an e-mail. “The other standard is when a person presents a danger to himself or others.”<\/p>\n
The folks at the policy center go on to note that those vets “often have histories of alcohol abuse, gambling, or credit problems” and are at higher risk of suicide or murder-suicide. They also cite a 2000 survey in The New York Times which showed that 52 percent of recent rampage killers had military backgrounds and that 47 percent had a history of mental illness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mr Sexton himself notes that<\/p>\n
OK, but it’s still a heck of a leap from needing a fiduciary to saying someone’s mentally ill. A veteran might need the fiduciary because of advanced age or other physical health problems, for example.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Putting aside the fact that the NYT article\/study is a pile of crap, and that needing a fiduciary doesn’t neccessarily imply mental illness, since when do laws apply differently to certain demographics?\u00a0 And what effect if going to the VA opens you up to losing your Second Amendment rights when going to a regular medical provider does not?<\/p>\n
I’m actually somewhat involved in this issue, and may have a follow up article from another newspaper soon that quotes me, but I am just curious what you guys think about the assertions by the Violence Policy Center that we are more of a danger as veterans than our non-serving brethren.\u00a0 And where is our Jesse Jackson-esque leader to stand up and proclaim that prejudice against veterans must not stand?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine you read this: The folks at the [organization] go on to note that [a certain … The last unprotected class<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}