The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) amendment that protects veterans’ Second Amendment rights when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) steps in to manage their benefits.
“Veterans who sacrificed to defend our Constitution shouldn’t see their own rights rest on the judgment of unelected bureaucrats—but right now, they do,” Mr. Kennedy told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
“My amendment would prevent government workers from unduly stripping veterans of their right to bear arms. Every veteran who bravely serves our country has earned VA benefits, and it’s wrong for the government to punish veterans who get a helping hand to manage those resources.”
Under current law, the VA reports a veteran’s name to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System when they seek help managing their VA benefits.
“Veterans who sacrificed to defend our Constitution shouldn’t see their own rights rest on the judgment of unelected bureaucrats—but right now, they do,” Mr. Kennedy said in June.
Mr. Kennedy decried this protocol on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
“If a veteran who defended this country has to go to the VA and ask for help managing his or her financial affairs, the VA automatically reports that veteran to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System ... and that veteran loses his firearm,” he said. “Automatically. No due process.”
The Senate voted 53 to 45 to approve the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, which Mr. Kennedy and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) spearheaded in June.
Mr. Moran said in a June release that veterans shouldn’t “have to choose between seeking help from the VA to manage their benefits and forfeiting their Second Amendment rights.”
“Our nation’s policies should encourage veterans to utilize the services provided by the VA, rather than driving them away by denying them their due process,” said Mr. Moran.
Their amendment, Mr. Kennedy said on the Senate floor on Wednesday, would mean that a veteran asking for help with their finances shouldn’t automatically lose their right to bear arms or be reported to the FBI “unless a judge has ruled that that veteran is a danger to himself or to others.”
Last week, Mr. Kennedy struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, to clear the bill after holding up a bill to fund military construction and the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.
Not all Democrats supported the measure.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a vocal proponent of gun control, said on the floor on Wednesday that the amendment would arm “mentally incompetent” veterans and lead to “a death sentence for scores of deeply mentally ill veterans.”
The Connecticut senator argued that the veterans who are currently being denied firearms have been judged “mentally incompetent” and are at risk of suicide.
Mr. Murphy has previously called the amendment “a disaster” and argued that it would “result in a dramatic spike in veterans’ suicides.” He attempted to defeat the measure on the Senate floor after it came out of committee.
“I think there’s a legitimate conversation about making that process better, but if we no longer have consensus that people with serious mental illness shouldn’t have weapons, that’s real trouble,” Mr. Murphy previously said.
“The only people that are in this category is people the VA has adjudicated to be mentally incompetent,” he added. “The finding is not a finding that you can’t balance your checkbook, the finding is that you are mentally incompetent.”
