Veterans bill pits gun rights vs. suicide epidemic

WASHINGTON — A bill that would allow “mentally incompetent” veterans to buy guns without a background check is being pushed through Congress by Republican leaders despite a warning by former top military leaders that it would be dangerous to pass such legislation amid a suicide epidemic plaguing those who served in uniform.

Passed by a mostly partyline vote in the House on March 16, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act is awaiting action in the Senate, where it’s set to bypass a major committee and go directly to that chamber’s floor for a final vote.

Even a key Democrat who supports the legislation’s goals questions that decision.

“I wish they had put it through the committee,” said Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “I don’t know why it wasn’t.”

An aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not respond to a request for comment on that decision or the possible timing of a floor vote.

Lawmakers appear divided on the bill because of two hot-button topics: gun rights and the suicide rate among veterans.

“It is outrageous that the only group of people that can have their constitutional rights taken away without a hearing before a judge or magistrate are the very people who fought for those rights,” said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., the recently installed chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Roe introduced the bill Feb. 16.

A physician before coming to Congress, Roe argued during House debate that the current standard used for providing names to the FBI for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) is not adequate to protect veterans’ constitutional rights to possess a gun.

Under existing law, Roe said, veterans’ names can be sent to NICS after the Department of Veterans Affairs determines they no longer can handle their own affairs, including financial benefits they get from the government, and need a fiduciary to assist them.

That occurs without a judicial ruling by a judge or a magistrate, he said.

House passage of the Roe legislation closely followed approval by both chambers of a resolution killing a regulation to apply a similar limitation by the Social Security Administration.

President Donald Trump signed that resolution Feb. 28, and his administration quickly issued a statement of support for the latest legislation.

Roe said his bill would require not only a ruling from a judicial authority before names could be sent to NICS but a ruling that those veterans are a danger to themselves or others. He said his bill has the support of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and the National Rifle Association.

But it drew opposition from retired Gens. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal and 12 other members of the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense, which is associated with Americans for Responsible Solutions, a group launched by former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz. Giffords was seriously injured during a January 2011 shooting.

In a letter to Congress, the former military leaders described a “devastating epidemic of veteran suicide,” with an average of 20 suicides daily.

“This proposal would put America’s veterans who need our support the most in harm’s way by providing them with easy access to firearms,” they wrote.

“Firearms are the most lethal means when it comes to suicide, resulting in death nine out of ten times.”

Instead of passing this “irresponsible and dangerous legislation,” they added, lawmakers should do more to guarantee veterans access to world-class medical and counseling services.

Still, the House approved the bill 240-175.

“Unfortunately this bill was rushed to the floor, with no consideration in committee, collaboration or even time for all of to understand its full implication,” committee member Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., said.

The VA provided its initial list of veterans rated incompetent to manage their benefits in 1999. In all, the agency has provided 167,815 names, but a spokesman said the data are not “readily trackable.”

The VA said the Brady Handgun and Violence Prevention Act prohibits the selling of firearms to certain ineligible people and requires the agency to provide those names to the attorney general. In addition, the Gun Control Act defines ineligible people as those who have been “adjudicated as a mental defective” or “been committed to any mental institution.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the VA added, defines a “mental defective” person as someone “determined by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority” as “lacking the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs” due to “mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”