WASHINGTON — Since a severely mentally ill man rampaged through Virginia Tech last year, killing 32 people before turning a gun on himself, Congress and several states have been working to tighten rules on who can legally purchase a firearm.
But a push in the U.S. Senate would remove from the national background check the names of 115,000 veterans who have been declared “mentally defective” — and would prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from adding any more names unless the agency goes through a judicial system.
The problem, says the senator behind the efforts, is that the veterans were added not because they were a danger to themselves or to others, but because they were assigned fiduciary guardians by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“This is a constitutional issue,” said Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “The (national database) is for criminals, not for folks who have troubles handling their own financial affairs.”
His bill would allow the agency to submit only the names of those who have been declared dangerous by a judge, magistrate or other judicial authority.
Burr said he wants to protect Second Amendment rights but isn’t trying to give guns to dangerously ill people.
“Clearly, we want to (include) people that reach the point of mental instability where access to firearms is not an option,” Burr said.
Burr succeeded this summer in getting his measure tacked to a popular veterans health bill now headed to the full Senate floor.
But while Burr is supported by the National Rifle Association and several veterans groups, others fear the move could lead to an increase in gun deaths.
