On Thursday, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) blasted “unelected bureaucrats” who have targeted the rights of military veterans who use a fiduciary to help with their finances.
Crane was part of a hearing which he described as being “about whether or not unelected bureaucrats can strip away Second Amendment, God-given rights from our veterans if they need help managing or their assets.”
Veterans’ gun rights have been under threat for decades, first for those seeking mental help for the struggles they faced post-deployment and then, for allowing a third party to help them manage finances.
Regarding mental health: In February 2016, during the Obama administration, Breitbart News reported numerous combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who might need treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder were increasingly hesitant to pursue it because they feared a diagnosis of PTSD would be used to deny their gun rights under the Obama administration.
A combat vet confined to a wheelchair spoke to Breitbart News anonymously at the time, saying, “I was diagnosed with PTSD. What’s being done to be sure my guns aren’t taken away?” He said he lived with the added anxiety of questioning his every trip to the doctor, fearing that he was one visit away from having his gun rights snuffed out.
This also became a serious concern for veterans who needed help balancing their checkbooks and managing their finances due to the mental strain caused by combat. Veterans feared that they faced a stark choice of having a fiduciary or having gun rights.
On July 25, 2019, Breitbart News pointed out that U.S. Reps. Phil Roe (R-TN) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) introduced legislation prohibiting the Veterans Administration from interfering with a veteran’s Second Amendment rights because that vet needs help managing finances.
Now, Rep. Crane is pushing H.R. 496 to block the attack on veterans’ gun rights once and for all.
Crane, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, noted that Democrats who support the status quo on bureaucrats being able to strip away gun rights often claim they do so in order to help reduce suicide among veterans, particularly combat veterans. But Crane rejected this line of thinking, saying, “When it comes to suicide, a lot of these individuals, a lot of veterans….who are struggling with PTSD and have some of these issues, one of [their] biggest issues is fear and trauma because [they] thought [they] might lose [their] life in battle against other people with guns.”
He suggested that taking away their guns now only serves to increase the feeling of defenselessness, thereby increasing feelings of fear and fueling the very suicides which Democrats claim they are trying to stop.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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