Bill To Allow ‘Mentally Incapacitated’ Veterans To Buy Guns

A Senate bill carries in an amendment allowing U.S. military veterans who are designated by the FBI as “mentally incapacitated” to buy guns.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Senate bill carries in an amendment allowing U.S. military veterans who are designated by the FBI as “mentally incapacitated” to buy guns.

The provision has not reached a vote, though its opposition was highlighted in a Mother Jones report last week.

This amendment was passed from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and supported by a key Democratic senator, Jim Webb of Virginia, himself a veteran.

Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr explained the provision in a 2008 press release:

“The Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act would require a judicial body to deem a veteran, surviving spouse, or child as a danger to himself or others before being listed in NICS, which would prohibit the veteran from being able to purchase certain firearms.”

Burr added that the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart support the measure.

Even after the shooting at Ft. Hood Army base earlier this month, Burr still supports the amendment.

The provision, though, would eradicate portions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which was adopted in the wake of the JFK assassination.