Grassley demands data from VA regarding veterans’ Second Amendment rights

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to say how many U.S. veterans have been put into the national criminal background check system, a move he thinks could result in them losing their Second Amendment rights.

Grassley in a letter Friday to VA Secretary Dennis McDonough said "placement on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System … effectively precludes ownership and possession of firearms" and that many veterans end up on the list as “mentally defective” due to their being assigned a fiduciary, or financial overseer. 

"I take the fundamental nature of the Second Amendment very seriously," Grassley wrote, "and when our veterans’ right to own and possess firearms is at issue, the government must ensure that constitutional due process is followed."

Grassley in the letter demanded that McDonough supply comprehensive VA-related NICS data for five years from 2017-2021. 

The senator has been pursuing this issue for several years. In 2018 he noted that "veterans are losing their Second Amendment rights because they have someone managing their checkbook."