Despite the hyperbole of the title of this thread, what I can read and understand of this legislation, is that it provides money to organizaitons so that they can comply with laws on the books. This legislation does not appear to be creating new laws in any way. At least as I understand it.
The problem is, new stipulations on the existing laws, and those stipulations are more then unreasonable.
From what I understand (unless I am misinformed), section [FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]102(b)(1)(C)(iv) in HR 2640 provides for raw medical records (from the VA and elsewhere) to be dumped into the NICS system. There is historical precidence for this, as this was done during the Clinton admin., and 83,000 vets were prevented from owning firearms due to things in their medical records, like PTSD.
And, supposedly, under legislation, they redefine "mentally defective" as anyone who is diagnosed to be a possible danger to himself by any "[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]court, commission, committee or other authorized person." [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif] This is far different then before, where "mentally defective" was something that had to be determined by the court system, and where people had all the protection of due process. Now, with this legislation, any kook could diagnose you with PTSD, anxiety, depression, or what have you, and despite the accuracy of that determination, if those raw records end up in the system, you could be denied your right to own a gun.
For most private citizens, your medical records can remain private because there is no government agency overseeing them. For vets, much of your medical records are kept by a government office (VA). So all that has to happen is that these raw records are turned over to the NICS system, and bam, thousands of vets are now unable to own a firearm. It appears that this legislation provides for exactly that.
Do you know how many vets rely on their abilities to carry and own firearms for their employment? How many vets are in the security and law enforcement industry, for example? Or how many vets serve in the National Guard and in other agencies, and rely on their abilities to own firearms to stay trained up on their own time so they can continue to effectively serve (going to ranges and so forth)? Yet, they will now be barred from employment and livelihood as well, because they won't be allowed to carry due to raw records.
The real ***** of this is, vets went to war to protect our freedoms. Now they come home to lose theirs!?
Now, knowing that this is what is wrong with this bill, how could ANYONE, anti-gun included, be in support for this bill?
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The NRA supports the legislation.
If my information is accurate as I have read, I don't care if the Pope, the Dali Llama, and Charlton Heston himself team up to support this legislation. What's wrong is wrong, and if the end result is what I described, then it is wrong regardless of who supports it.
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C.
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