St. Louis, as home to the St. Louis VA Medical Center, plays an important role in caring for our wounded warriors, who have sacrificed so much in our nation's service. Awareness has steadily grown of the fact that not all war wounds are physical in nature. American service members have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq for most of a decade now, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) afflicts an enormous number of these brave men and women, with the VA treating over 140,000 new PTSD sufferers last year.
"Thanks" in no small part to the NICS "Improvement" Act, veterans with PTSD face the very real risk of having their right to effective self-defense plundered by the government of the very nation for which they sacrificed so much. Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner Paul Valone provides a superb explanation of how that works. Read the whole thing, but here's the summary:
Although the NRA claims that H.R. 2640 applies only to people involuntarily committed to mental institutions or adjudicated as “mental defectives” by a court, the fact that existing law includes “boards” and “commissions” says otherwise. And although, technically, the bill doesn’t create new classes of “prohibited persons,” it creates a mechanism for REINTERPRETING EXISTING VAGUE LANGUAGE—written before mental health treatment became as pervasive as it is today—which will inevitably be used to bar ever-increasing numbers of people from owning guns.
Also see Mr. Valone's related article.
And lest any readers believe this was just fear mongering and/or "NRA bashing" on the part of Mr. Valone and Gun Owners of America, such horror stories have come to pass. Fort Smith Gun Rights Examiner Steve D. Jones informed us back in September of the disarmament of Wayne Irelan, who became a "prohibited person" by virtue of the fact that he needed help keeping track of his finances--sounds like a ticking time bomb, doesn't he?" National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea pointed out that Mr. Irelan's wife became a de facto "prohibited person," too, by virtue of living with Mr. Irelan:
I do find it interesting that ATF essentially advised that one prohibited person is all it takes to disarm everyone under the same roof.
Mr. Codrea made that observation in response to the BATFE's threat to the Irelans that "they could go to jail if a firearm is found in their home" (although it would now seem that at least one federal court would dispute that).
The Irelans, by the way, are not the first to be disarmed for PTSD, back in 2009, we talked about Sgt. Tim Mechaley's disarmament, which was "justified" similarly.
We have also talked about the fact that the message this sends to veterans suffering from PTSD, and who value their Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms: that they had better not seek treatment, lest they be forcibly disarmed.
With the growing efforts to revoke gun rights of people who are suffering from mental health issues, anyone who deeply values the right to an effective means to defend his life, family, and liberty is being given a strong disincentive from seeking the help he needs. This would seem an excellent recipe for causing exactly the kinds of tragedies we seek to avert.
Doesn't that make you feel safer?
S. 669/H.R. 2547, the "Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act" needs and deserves our support--it's the least we can do.
See also:
- Decorated Marine, disarmed by law
- Due process: it's for veterans, too
- Gun Rights 101: Mental health checks for gun purchases
- Is a vote for health care reform a vote against gun rights?
- The Brady Campaign against veterans
- Mental health, background checks, and unintended consequences
- Vets protected us, let's protect their Second Amendment rights
- VA, ATF say no guns for Iraq war vet
- Disarming heroes and shooting cops in self-defense
- Is this what Washington Post calls "sensible" gun regulation?
- It's not right - Wayne Irelan's country dumps on him
- Boozman delivers on 2nd Amendment promise to veterans
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