Officials with the
Department of Veterans Affairs have responded to charges that one of its divisions may be improperly transferring personal information about veterans to the FBI's National Instant Check System for the purpose of denying certain veterans the right to purchase a gun.
Their response: It's the law.
Last week,
WorldNetDaily reported that record-sharing practices by the VA could prevent some veterans and their beneficiaries from buying guns if they had at one time been deemed mentally incompetent.
At issue is the transfer of information by the
Veterans Benefits
Administration, or VBA, to the FBI for use in the federal law enforcement agency's National Instant Check System, or NICS, as it is more popularly known.
The NICS, which was mandated by the 1993 passage of the Brady Act, is used by gun dealers who are required to submit information on each potential gun buyer to the FBI to see if the purchaser is permitted to buy a firearm.
Americans who are rejected by the NICS are not permitted to buy a gun. At that point, FBI researchers review the case personally to make sure the rejection was not issued in error.
The discovery of a
June 2 VBA memo detailing the information-transfer requirements caught many veterans and veterans' groups by surprise, because, they said, they were unaware the Department of Veterans Affairs was providing information to the FBI.
Brian Naranjo, a spokesman for the
American Legion, expressed disbelief that veterans "who served their country honorably" could be denied the right to purchase a gun. He told WorldNetDaily last week that his group had "no idea" the information transfers were taking place.
Maybe so, but don't blame the VA, department spokesmen said Friday.
"We are required under the provisions of the Brady Act to provide this information to the FBI," said spokesman Steve Westerfield. "That's where the authority for this order came from."
And, he added, as long as the law remains the same, there is little the VA -- or veterans -- can do.
However, added VA benefits specialist Tom Pamprin, the process is not a haphazard one. It is structured and carefully guided by policy.
"Basically, there are two ways veterans can be ruled incompetent," he told WorldNetDaily. "One is via a court order; that is the least common way, perhaps just 20 percent.
"The other way, which is much more common, is that the veteran or beneficiary receives a formal rating of incompetency from a VA panel" of medical representatives "or from a duly authorized VA medical center, government agency, or even a private physician," said Pamprin, the assistant director of compensation and pension services.
Besides the VA, other federal agencies, under the Brady Act, are also required to report "key information" to the FBI for use in the NICS.
"We receive updated information from at least a half dozen agencies," FBI spokesman Paul Bressen told WorldNetDaily yesterday. They include the Department of Defense, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Treasury Department -- most notably the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- and the Drug Enforcement Agency, among others.
In contrast, Bressen said states are not required under Brady to provide criminal information, "but most do because, obviously, it's in their best interests."
Pamprin said the VBA is required to update the FBI every six months. The next update, which again involves transferring information on new veterans and beneficiaries that have been declared incompetent since the last information transfer at the beginning of the year, will take place this month, officials said.
Pamprin also said "our initial inclination" is to "try to preserve competency for the veteran or beneficiary."
"If we have conflicting reports on competency," he said, "we tend to give" veterans and beneficiaries the benefit of the doubt "until we find otherwise."
Once a veteran or beneficiary has been rated incompetent and placed in the NICS, however, Pamprin said he or she will remain that way "in the eyes of the FBI." Even if a veteran has his or her competency restored, the Brady law says, essentially, "once incompetent, always incompetent."
"Even if later on the VA restores competence," added Westerfield, "the law doesn't recognize the change."
According to federal law, those rated incompetent have the right to appeal.
FBI spokesman Bressen did not know if all federal agencies were required to report key information to the NICS or how often such reporting requirements were to be made. He did say, however, that each agency likely provided "separate information" mandated under the Brady law.
For example, he said, the Department of Defense might provide information about veterans dishonorably discharged from military service while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would report firearms violations.
In any case, Bressen said, the transfer of information to the NICS is required to prevent gun purchases by individuals prohibited from buying guns under various federal laws, including the Brady law.
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