VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site





Be sure to get all five
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
VSO Press
Releases

Download your
free copy of the
2007 VA benefits
handbook here...

Printer-Friendly Version

CONGRESS PASSES COMPROMISE GUN BILL THAT OFFERS

VETERANS, AND OTHERS, SPECIAL PROTECTIONS - NRA

APPROVES -- VA would have to notify a person flagged as

mentally ill and disqualified from buying or possessing

a gun, and would require notification when someone

has been cleared of that restriction.

Both Houses of Congress have passed new gun legislation.

This is a compromise of H.R. 2640.  More on H.R. 2640 here... http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=h.r.+2640&op=ph 

This new legislation appears to have ironed-out many of the complaints of gun owners, especially veterans.

We have two pieces of information...first an AP news story (note that story was published before House passed the bill)...and a statement from the NRA.

AP news story here... http://ap.google.com/artic
le/ALeqM5iEnfByXPlGVnNttnAG0MO3fdsnFQD8TKPEVO1

Story below:

-------------------------

Senate Passes Va Tech-Inspired Gun Bill

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday passed a long-stalled bill, inspired by the Virginia Tech shootings, that would more easily flag prospective gun buyers who have documented mental health problems and help defray the cost to the states.

The voice vote was the result of months of negotiations between the sponsors and the lone senator, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, who had objected and delayed passage.

The bill now goes back to the House, which passed similar legislation this year.

The measure would clarify what mental health records should be reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which help gun dealers determine whether to sell a firearm to a prospective buyer, and give states financial incentives for compliance. The attorney general could penalize states if they fail to meet compliance targets.

The bill was supported by political foes on both sides of the gun control debate. Yet Coburn held it up for months because he worried that millions of dollars in new spending would not be paid for by cuts in other programs.

His chief concern, he said, was that it did not pay for successful appeals by veterans or other people who say they are wrongly barred from buying a gun.

Just before midnight Tuesday, Coburn and the Democratic sponsors of the bill struck a deal: The government would pay for the cost of appeals by gun owners and prospective buyers who argue successfully in court that they were wrongly deemed unqualified for mental health reasons.

The compromise would require that incorrect records — such as expunged mental health rulings that once disqualified a prospective gun buyer but no longer do — be removed from system within 30 days.

The original bill would require any agency, such as the Veterans Administration or the Defense Department, to notify a person flagged as mentally ill and disqualified from buying or possessing a gun. The new version now also would require the notification when someone has been cleared of that restriction.

The bill would authorize up to $250 million a year over five years for the states and as much as $125 million a year over the same period for state courts to help defray the cost of enacting the policy.

The House sponsor, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., called for an immediate vote.

Propelling the long-sought legislation were the April 16 killings at Virginia Tech. Student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and himself using two guns he had bought despite his documented history of mental illness.

Cho had been ruled a danger to himself during a court commitment hearing in 2005. He had been ordered to have outpatient mental health treatment and should have been barred from buying the two guns he used. But Virginia never forwarded the information to the national background check system.

-------------------------

NRA statement here... http://www.nrail
a.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=10407

NRA statement below:

-------------------------

Senate Passes NICS Improvement Act, House Concurs

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

After months of careful negotiation, pro-gun legislation was passed through Congress today. The National Rifle Association (NRA) worked closely with Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to address his concerns regarding H.R. 2640, the National Instant Check System (NICS) Improvement Act. These changes make a good bill even better. The end product is a win for American gun owners.

Late yesterday, anti-gun Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), failed to delay progress of this pro-gun measure. The Violence Policy Center, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and other gun control and gun ban groups are opposed to the passage of this legislation because of the many pro-gun improvements contained within.

The NICS Improvement Act does the following to benefit gun owners:

* Permanently prohibits the FBI from charging a “user fee” for NICS checks.

* Requires all federal agencies that impose mental health adjudications or commitments to provide a process for “relief from disabilities.” Extreme anti-gun groups like the Violence Policy Center and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence have expressed “strong concerns” over this aspect of the bill—surely a sign that it represents progress for gun ownership rights.

* Prevents reporting of mental adjudications or commitments by federal agencies when those adjudications or commitments have been removed.

* Requires removal of expired, incorrect or otherwise irrelevant records. Today, totally innocent people (e.g., individuals with arrest records, who were never convicted of the crime charged) are sometimes subject to delayed or denied firearm purchases because of incomplete records in the system.

* Provides a process of error correction if a person is inappropriately committed or declared incompetent by a federal agency. The individual would have an opportunity to correct the error-either through the agency or in court.

* Prevents use of federal “adjudications” that consist only of medical diagnoses without findings that the people involved are dangerous or mentally incompetent. This would ensure that purely medical records are never used in NICS. Gun ownership rights would only be lost as a result of a finding that the person is a danger to themselves or others, or lacks the capacity to manage his own affairs.

* Improves the accuracy and completeness of NICS by requiring federal agencies and participating states to provide relevant records to the FBI. For instance, it would give states an incentive to report those who were adjudicated by a court to be "mentally defective," a danger to themselves, a danger to others or suicidal.

* Requires a Government Accountability Office audit of past NICS improvement spending.

The bill includes significant changes from the version that previously passed the House, including:

* Requires incorrect or outdated records to be purged from the system within 30 days after the Attorney General learns of the need for correction.

* Requires agencies to create “relief from disabilities” programs within 120 days, to prevent bureaucratic foot-dragging.

* Provides that if a person applies for relief from disabilities and the agency fails to act on the application within a year—for any reason, including lack of funds—the applicant can seek immediate review of his application in federal court.

* Allows awards of attorney’s fees to applicants who successfully challenge a federal agency’s denial of relief in court.

* Requires that federal agencies notify all people being subjected to a mental health “adjudication” or commitment process about the consequences to their firearm ownership rights, and the availability of future relief.

* Earmarks 3-10% of federal implementation grants for use in operating state “relief from disabilities” programs.

* Elimination of all references to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulations defining adjudications, commitments, or determinations related to Americans’ mental health. Instead, the bill uses terms previously adopted by the Congress.

On Wednesday evening, by unanimous consent, the U.S. House accepted the Senate amendment to H.R. 2640. The legislation is headed to the President's desk for his signature into law.

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

email Larry

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site