In a March 14 letter, Americans For Responsible Solutions, founded by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelley, enlisted former military leaders in the effort to allow the Veterans Administration to continue to arbitrarily restrict the 2A rights of veterans who appoint a designated payee to help them with their financial affairs.
A similar scheme that allowed the Social Security Administration to add up to 75,000 recipients’ names to the National Instant Check Background System was overturned in February. Both plans flag recipients of benefits who need help managing their finances as being “mentally deficient” for mental illnesses like eating disorders.
The VA plan not only stigmatizes tens of thousands of veterans, the vast majority of whom pose no threat; it also ignores the benefits to those veterans who find shooting and hunting therapeutic and calming. A1F even spoke to a member of a wounded warrior shooting team, whom the VA barred from participating because his mother helped him pay his bills. The policy prevents such veterans from applying for much-needed VA benefits for fear of having their rights stripped away.
