There’s something very wrong with the concept of the VA taking away someone’s gun rights because they need help managing their financial affairs. We veterans go to the VA for help, not to have our rights stripped from us simply because some bureaucrat has decided you can’t be trusted with your Second Amendment rights.

I mean, most of us have some degree of animosity toward the VA as it is, but this is a bridge too far.

And yet, some people really think this is a good thing and oppose protecting the rights of people who protected this nation.

Now, though, there are bills seeking to put an end to this particular flavor of stupidity.

A pair of companion bills currently making rounds in the House and Senate seek to protect the Second Amendment rights of veterans by preventing Veterans Affairs (VA) from reporting names to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) as a routine part of benefit-related actions. According to the authors of the bills, the NICS system uses those reports to strip veterans of their right to purchase and possess firearms without the same due process afforded to American citizens who did not serve in the military because the process doesn’t include a court finding that the veteran is a danger to themselves or others.

Republican Representative Mike Bost from Illinois, the bill’s sponsor, and House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs chairman, spoke about H.R. 1041, which has over 50 Republican co-sponsors, at a February 25 hearing. 

“This bill is not about guns on demand… It’s about giving veterans the same due process as every other American,” said Bost. 

The issue stems from a VA-appointed fiduciary program intended to assist veterans in managing their benefits and finances. Bost says that such an appointment has nothing to do with a veteran’s propensity to be a danger to the public and should not affect their NICS background checks in such a way that deprives them of their Second Amendment rights, which some veterans say discourages or prevents them from seeking mental health care. 

“VA should not be able to take away a veteran’s Second Amendment rights without due process simply because they need help managing their finances… Veterans should not be treated any different than every other American citizen. We know this practice creates a stigma around accessing veterans’ critical VA care and services,” Bost said at the hearing.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana sponsored S.478, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act of 2025, with over 15 Republican co-sponsors, including the Senate’s chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

I’m in complete agreement with Bost, by the way.

Look, I suck at managing money. I’m absolutely terrible at it. If there were a program available to me to get some help managing those finances, I’d love to take advantage of it.

But not at the expense of my right to keep and bear arms. 

I’m a responsible gun owner. I’m terrible with money, but good with my firearms. I’ve never threatened a soul who wasn’t a threat to me, and I’ve never injured anyone with any of my firearms. I’m just bad with money.

Luckily, my income isn’t in the VAs hands, so I didn’t figure that would be an option for me in the first place, but it shouldn’t matter. The VA is not a court of law. They don’t have the authority to strip someone of their rights.

If someone is a danger to themselves or others, there is a process via the courts to address that. That process provides due process to veterans and protects their rights until/unless they’re found to be unable to exercise them.

When we enlist, we give up a certain degree of our rights. I couldn’t have a gun in the barracks or speak against the government or the president while in uniform. My rights were curtailed, but there was a reason for that, and I signed up voluntarily, so that’s on me. If I had it to do all over again, I’d still sign on the dotted line.

But no veteran should lose their rights simply because the VA thinks they should.

My hope is that these bills pass, then end up on the president’s desk for a short time before he puts his signature on it.

My brother and sister veterans deserve nothing less.