“Death sentence”: Outrage after GOP pushes measure to expand gun access in government funding bill

Some Congressional Democrats are growing concerned about a gun-related policy rider — which will expand gun rights for veterans determined to be mentally incompetent to manage their own affairs — that was included in the latest bill to fund the government.

The House voted 339-85 on a package of six funding bills, drawing support from 207 Democrats and 132 Republicans. It is now set to move to the Senate, leaving little time before yet another government shutdown deadline looms.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent advocate for gun reform since the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in 2012, vowed Wednesday he would not vote for the legislation as it “significantly rolls back” the firearms background check system.

“I can’t sugarcoat this: this provision – which could result in 20,000 new seriously mentally ill individuals being able to buy guns each year – will be a death sentence for many,” Murphy wrote on X/Twitter. “It’s unacceptable this provision was pushed by Republicans. Democrats shouldn’t have acquiesced.”

While the provision was a Republican priority, it also drew support from some Democrats including Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Mary Peltola of Alaska, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Roll Call reported. 

The legislation includes a provision that will enable veterans who have been deemed “mentally incompetent” by the Veterans Affairs Administration to purchase a firearm by withholding information from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Under current law, veterans who are unable to manage their finances and benefits are reported to the Justice Department for a background check.

The gun-related rider would change that and prohibit the department from sharing such information unless a judge rules that the beneficiary is a danger to themselves or others.

Democrats and activists expressed concerns that the provision could potentially exacerbate gun violence, leading to more deaths and an increase in veteran suicides. 

Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., and Mark Takano, D-Calif., voted against the “minibus” legislation Wednesday.

Frost, who was the former organizing director for March for Our Lives, the student-led organization founded by survivors of the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., said the provision’s inclusion in the package has the “greatest rollback of the background check system since it was created.”

“This rollback would allow veterans that have been deemed by the Veterans Administration to be mentally incompetent to buy guns,” Frost wrote on X. “These are folks that the VA no longer trusts to manager their own benefits. Veterans who are also unfortunately, at a high risk of suicide.” 

Takano, the ranking member on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said a determination of mental incompetency by the V.A. is typically based on “very serious mental health conditions like schizophrenia and dementia”

“There are very serious reasons why people with those conditions should not be able to purchase a firearm,” Takano said. “It’s also the case that firearms are used in 68% of veterans’ deaths by suicide…So why on earth would this Congress cede one more important safeguard against a veteran’s death, and that is why I cannot support this bill.”

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund released a new report highlighting the rise of firearm suicide among veterans, which found that seven out of 10 veteran suicides are by gun, marking the highest proportion of veteran suicides with a gun in over 20 years.

Nearly 87,000 veterans died by gun suicide from 2002 to 2021. This was 16 times the number of service members killed in action over the same period, according to the report. 

By including this rider, Congress “threatens to undermine” a decades-long practice meant to keep “vulnerable” veterans safe, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told Salon. It aims to enable veterans who are prohibited from purchasing and possessing firearms under longstanding federal regulations and law to pass a background check and obtain them. 

“We know there can be serious, irreversible consequences when someone in crisis gains access to a firearm and, should this pass the Senate, it will put at-risk veterans at even greater risk of harming themselves and undermine public safety,” Feinblatt said. 

The “devastating rise” of firearm suicide among veterans “isn’t new,” but it’s made all the worse by easy access to guns, he added.

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“This proposed change puts veterans’ lives at risk, and gun sense lawmakers and lawmakers who have promised to help protect veterans from suicide should be doing everything in their power to reverse it before it’s too late,” Feinblatt said. 

The anti-gun-violence organization Giffords. led by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., also opposed the package because of the inclusion of the rider, emphasizing that the funding bill makes cuts to law enforcement agencies necessary to curbing gun violence.

This is a “dangerous and reckless” change that will “endanger” veterans, Vanessa N. Gonzalez, VP of Government and Political Affairs at Giffords, told Salon. Republicans framed the existing process that exists at the VA as “unfair” to veterans, but in reality, the VA’s process helps them “intervene at moments of crisis to potentially save lives.”

“The VA’s existing process for evaluations provides additional support for veterans who are diagnosed with severe PTSD or dementia or schizophrenia – veterans who are at increased of risk of suicide – and also gives them the opportunity to appeal to have their access to firearms restored,” Gonzalez said. “The Republican proposal will upend 30 years of practice and allow veterans who may harm themselves or others access to firearms.”

Public health research proves that easy access and the presence of a firearm increases the risk that a suicide attempt will be fatal, she added. More than 6,500 veterans die by suicide each year, and veterans account for roughly one in five firearm suicides in the U.S. Veterans who have been deemed “incompetent” by the V.A. are at a higher risk of suicide and giving them easier access to firearms will sadly lead to more fatalities.

“Our veterans serve our country with pride, and we need to do our part to ensure they receive the care they need when they come home,” Gonzalez said. “This move by Republicans, to distort the truth about a process that has been created to keep them safe, is a shameful step in the wrong direction. Their rhetoric doesn’t match their covert actions.”