Political Quotes

“I would like to raise a very important issue that is impacting our veterans population. That issue is the systematic denial of these veterans' Second Amendment rights. This comes up in discussions with Iowa veterans, and I have candidly discussed this issue before on the Senate floor. Today, I am introducing bipartisan legislation, cosponsored by Senator Manchin, called the Veterans' Second Amendment Rights Restoration Act of 2018. This bill is being introduced to solve the problem of denying these rights to veterans. The legislation is about the fidelity of the Constitution and about the fidelity of the Bill of Rights. It is also about due process and fairness for veterans. What this is not about, I want to make clear, is allowing anyone to purchase a firearm who is prohibited to do so under current law or regulations. I want it to be very clear right off the bat so that no one misinterprets this as some effort to let people own firearms who would normally be prohibited. This legislation is needed because a very disturbing trend has occurred in the past decade. The Veterans Health Administration has been reporting veterans to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System--the national gun ban list--just because these veterans have been determined by the VA to be veterans who require a fiduciary to administer benefit payments. This is a pretty simple proposition that denies veterans their Second Amendment rights. It is that simple, as I just said.…”