news Veterans can lose their gun rights if they can't manage their finances. Is it time for a rethink?

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In 2005, National Guardsman Corey Briest survived a roadside bomb blast that killed three of his fellow service members in Baghdad. He returned home to South Dakota blind and dependent on a wheelchair — with a severe traumatic brain injury.
But because of his injuries, the Department of Veterans Affairs told the Briests that they needed to appoint a fiduciary, someone to manage Corey’s financial affairs. As a result of the change, a VA field examiner told Corey he could no longer own or possess guns.
The VA's policy is to report vets to the FBI’s background check system, known as NICS, if they have been declared incompetent to manage their finances. That system screens most firearm purchases.
The VA cites a federal law that forbids gun ownership among people who are unable to take care of their affairs due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”
But detractors argue that the VA’s criteria for identifying financial incompetence are unclear and that the appeals process is lengthy and difficult. Stacey-Rae Simcox of the Veterans Legal Clinic at Stetson University said the VA should have to go to court to take someone’s gun rights away.
Ultimately, Simcox said, difficulty with finances isn’t a reliable predictor of danger.
At a press conference in late January, VA Secretary Denis McDonough maintained that the agency’s approach is sound.
Congress is considering overriding the VA policy. Democrat Jon Tester of Montana pushed a measure through the Senate last year that prohibits federal funds from being used to report veterans to the background check system without a judge’s order declaring them a danger.
McDonough’s office did not answer questions about how the fiduciary appointment process is triggered. It also declined to say how often the agency reports veterans to the background check system and how many of those veterans appeal.
Read more at: https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2024...anage-their-finances-is-it-time-for-a-rethink
 

CalVet

Member
This is kind of concerning. Below is the rating formula for mental health disorders...

General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders

Rating
Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name.​
100
Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a worklike setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships.
70
Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.
50
Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as: depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events).
30
Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or symptoms controlled by continuous medication.
10
A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication.
0

It seems like nearly every mental health claim I come across is rated at 30% or higher. But it's important to pay attention to the language used, even for the 10% rating, especially with the new formula that might set the floor for mental health claims at 10% as the term "social impairment" appears in both. Could this term imply that someone shouldn't be allowed to own a gun? It's certainly possible to make a reasoned argument for that, especially never having seen the veteran except on paper. However, the idea that the VA might act on this without taking proper legal steps is something that worries me.
 

greg

Member
It's worrying to think the VA could use words from a mental health checkup to take away rights without following the proper legal steps. We really need a clear line between checking health to help people and making choices about what legal rights someone has.
 
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