..makes different rules for itself and is authorized to trash veterans gun rights using an administrative procedure.
we're getting a bit off topic here, but this is a point I feel must be clarified.
The govt agencies were not authorized to trash veterans rights (or anyone else's) using administrative procedure.
They DID it, but they weren't authorized to...
The problem was created by the requirement of different agencies to report "mentally ill" people to the NICS, WITHOUT taking into consideration the fact that different agencies use different standards to define "mentally ill" within their organizations. The standard used by the VA and the standard used by Social Security, and the standard used by NICS are all DIFFERENT, and only the NICS one comes from federal law.
Fed law requires INDIVIDUALS to go through hearings and get full due process. VA and SSI do not. Their own internal classification as mentallly ill was reported to the NICS, and NICS having only one "box" to put people in did so, classifying them as prohibited persons, taking other agencies classification at face value and plugging that into their system.
Also, the FBI (NICS) was under no obligation to verify that the VA or SSI or other agency's "mentally ill" classification met the due process requirement in Federal law.
it was a bureaucratic SNAFU that wasn't right, wasn't legal, and I'm sure caused no end of sleepless night s for the the people who put it in place
(sarcasm)
The Trump administration stopped that abuse of the system. That's it.