Originally published August 13 2015
VA officials send veterans' medical info to FBI, ATF to facilitate gun seizures
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) As ironic as it sounds, the Obama administration's Department of Veterans Affairs is actually working to disarm veterans with an insane policy that treats America's warriors as threats.
As reported by The Daily Caller, the VA is assisting in the disarming process by ensuring veterans are placed on the FBI's criminal background check list. The VA transmits veterans' personal medical and financial information directly to both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which can then seize veterans' guns in their homes.
The Daily Caller further reported:
Veterans deemed mentally incompetent or financially incapable are finally speaking out about the errors in the system and the fearful harassment they and their families face from the federal government. And it all starts when vets go to the VA to get medical help.
The news site's investigation found that VA medical information is being used (misused?) to ensure that veterans are no longer able to possess a firearm.
The DC was able to obtain a "MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION REGARDING THE NATIONAL INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM."
That document, which was dated Feb. 27, 2012, makes it crystal clear that the VA has to send health information to the bureau so it can populate its firearms background check list.
"VA will provide an encrypted compact disc exchanged via mail to the FBI no less than quarterly for, inter alia, inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)," the memo reads.
"I'm a felon?"
Shockingly, the VA will put veterans on the FBI's list if they happen to state they are unable to handle their "financial affairs."
"...VA provides the Department of Justice a monthly list of individuals who have been rated by VA as being unable to manage their VA benefits," says a federal government frequently asked questions document obtained by The Daily Caller.
The VA information technology center located in Austin, Texas, kicks out "a monthly CD" to the FBI containing new names that need to be added to the FBI's NICS list. The number of vets who are summarily tracked "fluctuates," says the memorandum, but as of July 12, 2012, "there were 129,440 beneficiaries in the program..."
Simply changing the way in which a veteran banks will land him or her on the list as well.
"A [VA] counselor named Dr. Blair says, 'How are you handling your finances?'," veteran Henry Wrobel of Canton, Texas told The DC. "I said my wife suggested, to make it a little bit easier for me, maybe use the auto-debit instead of going to the post office because it's hard for me to drive" with injuries including two "made-up thumbs" as a result of a dozen hand surgeries, a wired-on shoulder, and other problems.
"I told him it's working very well," said Wrobel. The counselor "wrote down that I was unable to handle my own finances and that 'his wife handles his finances.' I got a letter saying that because I can't handle my finances I'm like a felon and I can't be around guns."
"I had a pistol permit in Connecticut at 21, and the only things against me are one speeding ticket and two parking tickets. My constitutional rights, my dignity, means nothing to" the counselor, Wrobel added. "I have no crimes whatsoever against me, and now I'm stripped of my constitutional rights as though I'm a felon."
Once a veteran is placed on the list, then federal SWAT teams likely will pay them a visit - to collect the veteran's guns.
Congress asking, "What's going on?"
"I was getting real sick from the medications they had me on," Colorado war veteran Douglas Szklarski told The Daily Caller. "I pretty much lived in bed. Somebody brought me a joint. I started using cannabis. It started turning me around immediately. So I said I wouldn't [take the VA pills] anymore. They said you have to take them. They deemed me incompetent."
"I've had like nine doctors say I wasn't incompetent and they still went after my guns," he continued.
"ATF came to my house. I had to surrender them," he said, adding that eventually he appealed the VA's decision, successfully. "I just got my guns back."
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa sent a letter to outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., in mid-April, complaining about the VA's practice, and the FBI's response.
"Congress needs to understand what justifies taking such action without more due process protections for the veteran," said the letter.
Stars and Stripes reported that in past analyses, it was found that 99 percent of the names listed as mentally defective in the FBI's database came from the VA.
"Under the current practice, a VA finding that concludes that a veteran requires a fiduciary to administer benefit payments effectively voids his Second Amendment rights - a consequence which is wholly unrelated to and unsupported by the record developed in the VA process," said Grassley, in his letter.
Sources:
http://dailycaller.com
http://www.westernjournalism.com
http://www.military.com
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