NC Senator: Drop Gun Limits for Vets

U.S. Senator Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, is the ranking GOP member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Burr wants to ease restrictions on gun purchases by U.S. veterans who have been placed at one time or another under psychiatric care.

Burr has introduced an amendment to a bill in the Senate that will prevent such veterans' names from being added to a national database of those unfit to own a firearm.

At present, 115,000 veterans are listed in the database.

The American Legion and the NRA support the Burr Amendment. The usual suspects, such as the Violence Policy Center, oppose it.

Burr maintains that many of these veterans were added to the list by the Department of Veterans Affairs, not because they were a danger to themselves or others, but because they had been assigned guardians to oversee their finances.

And thus, the matter becomes a Constitutional issue, according to Burr.

The Liberty Sphere supports the Burr Amendment. But we feel it doesn't go nearly far enough. As we warned many times concerning the massive gun control bill initiated by Carolyn McCarthy and supported by the NRA, the slippery slope that has ensued is resulting in veterans being banned from owning guns.

Granted, the system specified in the Burr Amendment is the result of the Brady Bill in 1993. Yet the ramifications for veterans are similar in both bills.

The Burr Amendment is an important first step in addressing a travesty of justice and liberty.