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.
Advocacy groups support lawmakers seeking legislative changes to this reporting requirement in an attempt to level the application of due process for American veterans
“Their Second Amendment rights are clearly violated, because a judge is never involved in that… It’s an administrative action. So, I think everybody realizes that’s not fair, especially for those that are defending our rights… At the very best, it’s been a mistake or a loophole… At the worst, it is administrative bureaucracy run amok,” says Jim Whatley, 20-year Army veteran and the CEO of Mission Roll Call.
According to the NRA, hundreds of thousands of veterans have been assigned fiduciaries by the VA in the last three decades, which has triggered NICS reports declaring them “mental defectives” and severed their right to bear arms.
Beth Murphy, the acting principal deputy undersecretary for benefits at the VA, told lawmakers at the House hearing that the VA supports the bill requiring evaluative consideration to determine if the veteran’s mental capacity warrants NICS reporting.
“To avoid putting the veteran at risk of facing criminal liability when purchasing a firearm, VA recommends including legislative language that would clearly exempt an individual deemed incompetent for purposes of the VA fiduciary program from being considered a ‘mental defective’ as defined by DOJ,” said Murphy.
A temporary reporting fix was included in the previous year’s Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act and was set to expire in March. That fix has been extended through the end of the fiscal year with hopes of a more permanent solution on the horizon.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a list of those who vote against this measure to see how many utilize financial advisors or any assistance in getting things done in their personal lives. This issue is not something I was made aware of previously, and it is a serious miscarriage of justice for those who sacrifice to defend America and the very rights they are personally being denied.
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