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Americas veterans helped protect us. Now we can ensure they themselves are not arbitrarily denied the right of self-protection.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs marked up and favorably reported H.R. 1181, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, sponsored by Committee Chairman Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN). The bill now moves to the full U.S. House, where a vote could come as early as next week.

H.R. 1181 is meant to deal with a longstanding and shameful practice by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which administers disability benefits for veterans and their families. Under this practice, anyone who the VA declares incompetent to manage his or her own benefits and assigns a fiduciary is automatically reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) as a prohibited mental defective. The person is then subject to a lifetime ban on the acquisition and possession of firearms, unless he or she successfully petitions for relief from disabilities.

As of Dec. 31, 2016, the NICS contained 167,815 active records submitted by the VA under this program.

The VAs program suffers from a number of legal and practical issues.

Above all, it does not attempt to identify which beneficiaries have mental illnesses that actually cause them to be a danger to themselves or others. Rather, it merely targets individuals who have been identified as needing help to manage their benefits. Yet there is no scientific or empirical evidence to support the idea that needing help managing money is the same thing as being too dangerous or irresponsible to safely handle a firearm.

Second, the statute on which the reporting is based prohibits firearm acquisition or possession by persons who have been adjudicated as a mental defective. While these terms are not defined in the statute, the purely bureaucratic process by which a fiduciary is assigned which in most cases does not involve a hearing, much less a judge is hardly the sort of procedure most would consider an adjudication. And the only issue at stake is whether the person needs help with his or her finances. It does not affect rights other than under the Second Amendment, including the right to form legally binding contracts, vote, hold office, serve on a jury, etc.

While the VA does theoretically make relief available after the fact, few of the beneficiaries affected by the program have the means to negotiate the highly bureaucratic process, which may also require expensive mental health evaluations and legal aid. The procedure also turns due process on its head by forcing the petitioner to prove by a high standard of evidence that he or she is not a risk to public safety, a premise the government was never required to establish in the original adjudication.

The VAs own records showed that as of April 2015, only 3% of relief petitions had been granted. And the decision makers considering the petitions are the same sorts of VA bureaucrats who made the original fiduciary determination, not an independent judge or magistrate.

H.R. 1181 would change all this by ensuring that the VA could only report a beneficiary to NICS as prohibited mental defective if a judicial authority had already made a finding that the person is a danger to self or others. This would ensure due process, as well protect those who simply need help managing their finances but are not at increased risk of committing a dangerous act with a firearm.

President Trump signed a measure into law last month that prevented the Social Security Administration from going through with a plan to implement a similar reporting system for certain of its Disability or Supplementary Security Income beneficiaries assigned representative payees.

And the House had passed a bill to halt VAs program in 2011, which eventually died in the Senate.

Action to stop this unconscionable infringement of veterans Second Amendment Rights is long overdue.

Please contact your congressional representative NOW and respectfully ask him or her to vote YES on H.R. 1181, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act. You can call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representatives office, or you can send an email using our Take Action tool.

Americas veterans answered the call to serve for the good of all. Now is your chance to ensure their rights are protected. Dont delay. Please call or write your representative today.

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Your Help Urgently Needed to Protect the Second Amendment Rights of America's Veterans! - NRA ILA

Put simply, writes Judge Robert King of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war.

In Kolbe v. Hogan, the court upheld Marylands ban on assault weapons, also known as rifles that look scary to people who know nothing about guns.

As talk radio host Darryl W. Perry of Free Talk Live notes, Kings perversely broad statement would cover a ban on the possession of rocks:

And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him 1st Samuel, Chapter 17

King also displays a poor grasp of history. No judicial power is required to extend the Second Amendment to cover weapons of war, because theyre precisely what it was intended to cover in the first place.

The Second Amendment was ratified only a few years after a citizen army many of its soldiers armed, at least at first, with weapons brought from home defeated the most fearsome professional military machine in the history of the world, the army of a global empire.

The express purpose of the Second Amendment was to guarantee the continued maintenance of an armed populace. In fact, the Second Militia Act of 1792 legally required every adult able-bodied white American male to own and maintain weapons of war (a musket or rifle, bayonet, powder and bullets) just in case the militia had to be called out.

Even in the 1939 case usually cited to justify victim disarmament (gun control) laws, U.S. v. Miller, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the reason Jack Miller/s short-barreled shotgun could be banned was that it WASNT a weapon of war: [I]t is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense.

Yes, you read that right: The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment applies ONLY to weapons of war. I think thats too narrow myself, but at least it comes at the matter from the correct historical perspective.

The purpose of the Second Amendment is best understood in terms of a quote falsely attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Japanese navy at the beginning of World War II: You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.

Shame on King and the 4th Circuit for failing to uphold the plain meaning of shall not be infringed.

(Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism, thegarrisoncenter.org. He lives and works in north central Florida. Follow him on Twitter @thomaslknapp.)

Excerpt from:
The Second Amendment and 'weapons of war' - The Fayette Tribune

Its the Iowa Firearms Coalitions Second Amendment Day at the state capitol and gun rights advocates are ready to watch the Iowa House debate a bill that includes many of their priorities. Kurt Liske, vice president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition,called ita show of appreciation from House Republicans.

The fact that we have a day that we scheduled months out in advance, to have them essentially tailor their schedule to ours is almost unheard of, Liske said this morning. The fact that theyre doing this is a real testament to you guysthe fact that youre out there helping with campaign work, things like that.

More than 70 members of the Iowa Firearms Coalition crowded into a capitol committee room thismorning for a briefing on the bill. Members wore orange stickers that read: I support the Second Amendment and I vote.

Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley who is floor manager of the gun bill, spoke to the group.

A lot of things in this bill, including the stand your ground provisions, have been a long time coming, Windschitl said, and it looks as though weve finally got an opportunity to push this down to the governors desk.

Windschitl is a trained gunsmith and his family runs a gun store in Missouri Valley. He uses the word phenomenal to describe the bill as currently crafted.

With the make-up of the legislature the way it is, we have gotten this bill to a place where I didnt even expect us to as far as the freedoms we have in here, Windschitl said. This sets us up for future successes. This sets us up so we can come back next year and get our freedoms back that have been encroached upon over generations.

Windschitl, whohas received death threats becauseof his advocacyfor the legislation, said theres some hate and discontent out there about the bill. He urged Iowa Firearms Coalition members to lobby theirSenators today.

Weve still got our work cut out for us when we move this over to the senate, Windschitl said. There are a lot of senators that are very eager to get all of this done, but the majority in the senate is new and so some of them have not faced the challenges that go into running bills like this, because they can get kind of controversial.

House debate of the bill is expected to get underway early this afternoon.

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House to debate gun bill on IFC's 'Second Amendment Day' - Radio Iowa

TCPalm

Will Trump Roll Out the Big Guns on Second Amendment Issues? CALIFORNIA But the action was significant more as a political statement than functional policy, says UC Berkeley Law Professor and Center for Studies in Criminal Justice Director Franklin Zimring, an authority on Second Amendment issues. Obama's rule, after all, ... Bill to end 'reckless' denial of Second Amendment rights in businessesArizona Daily Sun Other viewpoints: 2nd Amendment doesn't trump 1stThe Columbus Dispatch How America's Courts Are Threatening the Rule of LawtheTrumpet.com The Ramapo News all 6 news articles »

Excerpt from:
Will Trump Roll Out the Big Guns on Second Amendment Issues? - CALIFORNIA

Kirk Smith/THE REVIEW After the university pulled funding for the RSOs ammunition, the Students for the Second Amendment have found alternative means of sponsorship.

BY MADIE BUIANO SENIOR REPORTER

Two months after the university revoked the organizations funding to buy ammunition, Zoe Callaway, president of Students for the Second Amendment, hasnt stopped in her pursuit to bring firearms to campus.

In the meantime, the club will host various speakers throughout the semester. Callaway has spoken to the National Rifle Association, advocates for gun rights and the Second Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on Americas constitutional heritage to possess firearms.

Callaway hopes to bring Gays for Guns to campus, a group dedicated to teaching LGBTQ communities proper firearm use. For her last semester as president, Callaway wants to co-sponsor the event with Haven, the schools largest LGBTQ organization.

It would be a really good way to come together, especially since the country is so divided, Callaway said. To bring these two groups together would speak volumes.

Havens president, Elias Antelman, said he didnt have enough knowledge on the subject to comment.

The university provided ammunition funding to the club for approximately three years. Under the new university president, Dennis Assanis, that is no longer the case. Callaway and Jeremy Grunden, the newly appointed vice president of Students for the Second Amendment, were unexpectedly informed of the change over winter break. According to Gruden, the new policy will make the RSOs recurring trips to the shooting range harder.

They did it under our noses, just slipped it in there and didnt really tell anybody, Grunden said.

The unanticipated change will not affect the groups ability to buy ammunition for the time being. In July, Fox News wrote a story on Students for the Second Amendment titled College rifle, pistol-shooting clubs under fire, underfunded amid gun debate. Following the story, Callaway said people donated a couple thousand dollars to their club, money that they will use in substitute of university funds.

Weve also been offered discounts at different stores, Callaway said. People are willing to help us.

Despite funding restrictions, Grunden said that the group has other priorities, like continuing the fight to bring concealed carry to campus, a goal Calloway announced in October. Since then, the group has pursued support through state legislation, rather than through the school administration. The second semester president said she has spoken to senators and representatives in Delaware that have expressed interest.

We all understand its going to take a long time, longer than we like, Callaway said. We still need to find people who will help us draft a bill, and who would be willing to present it at legislative hall.

If her plan to bring concealed carry to campus is successful, Callaway already has an idea for moderating who will be allowed to carry firearms. She said that if members of the community already have their concealed carry permit, they should be permitted to have guns on their person.

Having a permit from a different state means that a screening process has already occurred. Callaway said there should be a mandatory class that people who hope to carry firearms should take as a way to stifle concerns throughout campus.

In the meantime, Students for the Second Amendment is planning a range trip following spring break. On these trips, the groups members go to a local shooting range to shoot paper targets.

According to Grunden, these excursions are of particular interest to members who are first time shooters because it provides them with an opportunity to learn about gun safety and how to properly operate a weapon.

Weve even taken foreign exchange students to the range, Callaway said. Guns are completely banned in China, so this is their only chance to ever shoot a gun.

Other than a range trip Callaway and Grunden said they will be reserving a kiosk in Trabant to advertise and educate the UD community on what their club is about. Callaway said they have been making new pamphlets that have information about gun laws in local states. They are hopeful that this will bring in new members, she said.

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Students for the Second Amendment persevering after ammunition funding is revoked - University of Delaware Review