Adjudicated mentally defective
Since a severely mentally ill man rampaged through Virginia Tech last year, killing 32 people before turning a gun on himself, Congress and several states have been working to tighten rules on who can legally purchase a firearm.
But a push in the U.S. Senate would remove from the national background check the names of 115,000 veterans who have been declared “mentally defective” — and would prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from adding any more names unless the agency goes through a judicial system.
The problem, says the senator behind the efforts, is that the veterans were added not because they were a danger to themselves or to others, but because they were assigned fiduciary guardians by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“This is a constitutional issue,” said Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “The (national database) is for criminals, not for folks who have troubles handling their own financial affairs.”
His bill would allow the agency to submit only the names of those who have been declared dangerous by a judge, magistrate or other judicial authority.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Ok what he is talking about is that alot of veterans who are rated 100% disabled for PTSD have a guardian assigned to handle their finances. These veterans have never had any kind of hearing or court proceding to declare them incompetent. These veterans should rightfully be removed from the prohibited list.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
#@$%^! blood-dancers had to sensationalize the story by dragging in Virginia Tech right at the start!
And did you notice that the gun-grabbers “concerns” weren’t along the lines of ‘they’ve been found to have psych problems, so they’re more likely to be dangerous’ but ‘because they’re veterans they’re a greater risk.’
As far as they’re concerned, the fact that a person was in the military is proof of incompetence. No Due Process needed.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Umm, Jake, no, not proof of incompetence, proof of scariness. Those guys have been trained to kill, and they might be _grumpy_.
Sorta like Kim DuToit. Really, folks, ease up on Kim a bit. He used to be much more mellow before he fell into the financial shithole, and the same applies to me and many others.