Hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Roe, Hearing On "2019 Legislative Presentation of The American Legion"

Hearing

I'd like to bring something to your attention and ask for your help since I know The American Legion is an ardent supporter of all Constitutional rights.

Yesterday, we in the House voted on a Rule that will permit limited debate on legislation that would impact veterans' 2nd Amendment rights.

This bill, H.R. 1112, will be considered in the House later today -- a bill that unfortunately has had very little debate and minimal committee process.

A little known and poorly understood provision of H.R. 1112 would amend the law to read as follows:

"It shall be unlawful to sell. . . any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe such person. . .

. . . has been adjudicated with mental illness, severe developmental disability, or severe emotional instability."

To put this in perspective, there are over 1.6 million disabled veterans with a service-connected adjudication by VA of mental illness, including one million with PTSD.

H.R. 1112 has the potential to add all the names of those veterans to the FBI's NICS list, and prevent those veterans from being able to possess or purchase a firearm.

I offered an amendment to clarify that veterans with VA mental illness and other affected adjudications would be exempt from the bill's standard, but it was ruled out of order.

Many people don't realize that VA already regularly sends the names of veterans who have a VA fiduciary for inclusion on the NICS list -- not because there's a concern that the veteran might be a harm to themselves or others -- but because VA has determined that the veteran needs assistance handling his or her financial benefits.

I am concerned that the expanded definition proposed in H.R. 1112 would infringe on the 2nd Amendment rights of millions of veterans -- solely because they sought the benefits from VA that they have rightly earned through their service to our country and have now been adjudicated with a service-connected mental illness.

But, like those veterans with fiduciaries -- even though there may not have ever been a finding by a judicial authority that the veteran poses a danger to themselves or society -- these veterans would be told that they were good enough to use a firearm to fight for our freedoms, but are not good enough to bear arms as a civilian.

The last thing I want to do is discourage veterans from seeking VA benefits because they are afraid that it might cost a Constitutional right if they receive a rating decision for a service-connected mental illness.

We need your help to slow this train down so we can understand what we're doing here.

Please, call your Congressman and raise your concerns with H.R. 1112.

We need to make sure we're not abridging Constitutional rights without a full understanding of the ramifications on those who've served.

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