2nd Amendment and PTSD?

[Aguila Blanca]

i've belonged to the NRA for well over 50 years. The NRA and other gun rights organizations are demagoguing on this issue.

First it was Alex Jones, tin foil hat stuff.

Now the NRA is "demagoguing." Is Senator Grassley demogoguing, too?

 

[johnwilliamson062]

It's a real problem, because PTSD is where the money is these days, so the VA gets more money if they can show that they are treating more veterans for PTSD. So they have an incentive to diagnose and classify clients as having PTSD ... thereby swelling the ranks of veterans being reported to NICS.

It is also an extremely easy way for a veteran to make a fraudulent lifetime partial disability claim. I know a guy who served a year on a Navy ship in the Gulf. Never attacked, never near combat. I don't think he even had close friends injured or in combat. He did work long hours as an aerospace mechanic(12+ hours everyday). He now draws 10% disability for life. According to his wife, there isn't a good test to distinguish from PTSD from ADHD which he was diagnosed before entering service.

I really wouldn't mind if the VA reported his firearms "disability." Then again, he is already "disabled" by several other routes.

 

[NateKirk]

PTSD is a very broad term I think. Some people with just are uncomfortable around fireworks (like my brother) and some people still think and act like they are in a warzone. I don't think everyone with PTSD should have limited access to firearms, but some of the more serious cases should have restricted access, even if it's just temporary.

 

[thallub]

First it was Alex Jones, tin foil hat stuff.

Two different subjects. You insisted the VA is taking the gun rights of folks with PTSD. That is not true.

Now the NRA is "demagoguing."

It's about hypocrisy. The NRA supported the NICS Improvements Act of 2007 knowing full well that the VA does not follow the same NICS reporting rules that are applicable to the states. This is what the NRA said about the VA and NICS:

The Veterans’ Administration has regulations that provide veterans with an opportunity for a hearing on those decisions, and an opportunity for multiple appeals—just as a civilian does in state court. Any records that don’t meet this standard could not be reported to NICS, and any deficient records that have already been provided would have to be removed.

.............................................................................................

Last, but not least, H.R. 2640 also provides veterans and others their first opportunity in 15 years to seek “relief from disabilities” through either state or federal programs. Currently, no matter how successfully a person responds to treatment, there is no way for a person “adjudicated” incompetent or involuntarily committed to an institution to seek restoration of the right to possess a firearm.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20071005/the-nics-improvement-bill-myth-and-rea

Fact: The NRA shilled for the NICS improvements Act of 2007 knowing full well that the VA was reporting veterans with actuaries to NICS and knowing full well that the VA had no intention of cleaning up their act as pertains to that reporting.

Now the NRA is "demagoguing."

Now the NRA is whining about the VA reporting veterans with actuaries to NICS: A procedure that the NRA supported when the bill was under consideration by congress.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

PTSD is a very broad term I think. Some people with just are uncomfortable around fireworks (like my brother) and some people still think and act like they are in a warzone. I don't think everyone with PTSD should have limited access to firearms, but some of the more serious cases should have restricted access, even if it's just temporary.

I don't disagree that some people with PTSD should be prohibited. But there is a legally prescribed route for handling that, and it involves due process and adjudication. The VA process does not involve either due process or adjudication.

 

[thallub]

The VA process does not involve either due process or adjudication.

Bingo!!!!!

None of the federal agencies follow due process in reporting folks to NICS. That's why we are hearing about the Social Security Administration plans to report recipients to NICS.