The House recently passed the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, including amendments introduced by Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ), which protect veterans' rights to purchase and carry firearms.
Rep. Crane sought to remedy the specific issue of veterans being reported to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) via a VA fiduciary, thereby denying their Second Amendment rights.
Over 260,000 veterans have been denied the right to bear arms because of this system since the Clinton Administration. Similarly, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were hesitant to pursue treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) under Obama for fear their right to carry would be revoked.
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As a result, Rep. Crane's amendments to the FY25 appropriations bill would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to have these veterans removed from the NICS system through the Attorney General.
The Arizona Congressman spoke with Breitbart in the above link, saying, "These are two issues that I care deeply about: 1) The veteran community and 2) Protecting Americans' right to keep and bear arms. This amendment combines those two in an attempt to restore rights to veterans who have lost those rights because they needed a fiduciary through the VA to help them with their finances."
Crane's bill is his latest drive to help his fellow veterans, with his most recent success being the passage of his first piece of legislation to the House in April, which would transfer 232 acres of Federally-owned land in Gila County, Arizona, to the state, allowing for the construction of a veterans' center outside the town of Young.
In March, the Arizona Congressman introduced a bill prioritizing hiring veterans with appropriate skills into Federal land management agencies such as the Forest and National Park Services in response to severe understaffing at these agencies.
"So regardless of where God puts me in life, it is always going to be something that is near and dear to me, just because I understand how most people do not change career paths," Crane told Cactus Politics March, noting how many veterans have returned home from "multiple, multi-decade wars," and thus "a lot of them have a lot of issues, a lot of trauma [and] mental health issues."
