Former United States Navy Veteran, Certified National Recruiter, and Commander of the Elm Grove Memorial Veterans of Foreign Wars Vernon Anderson told Breitbart News exclusively that the Department of Veteran’s Affairs’ Gun Lock push is “another Obama back door gun control measure.”
According to an earlier NPR report noting veteran suicide statistics, “The VA is trying to help with a program that offers gun locks to veterans for free. The thinking is that if they lock their guns up they might not reach for them in the spur of the moment.”
But many critics argue this is a government form used to get veterans to identify if they own a firearm, creating a federal registry. Anderson supplied three letters he received in a packet from the VA. One is titled “Veterans Crisis Line Public Fact Sheet” detailing the VA help line. Another document is a gun safety pamphlet, providing gun safety facts and statistics. The third document is a lock order form to be returned to the VA once it is completed with paid postage supplied by the VA. It requires the veteran’s name, address and exact number of gunlocks needed.
Bullets First Blogger Tony Oliva wrote earlier this year that a letter was sent out to veterans stating:
“As your partner in healthcare, we are committed to keeping you and your family safe. Gun locks have been shown to greatly reduce death and injury caused by firearms in the home. If you own a gun, we hope you will request and use a gun lock.”
Oliva mocked, “That’s right. “Just give us all the information we want about your guns and we will give you a shiny new gun lock for each of them… so it will be harder for you to get to them when we storm your house in the middle of the night to take them.” Oliva writes
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently evil about gun locks if you have kids in your household and whatnot but let’s not pretend that this isn’t a blatant attempt to get firearm information of people that this administration views as a threat. If the VA was REALLY interested in handing out safety locks, they would make the locks available at VA offices, hospitals and clinics for vets to come in and take a couple without having to forfeit their privacy to their ever invasive eye of the government.
Oliva is calling for the veterans to take a pass on this offer.
U.S. Navy Veteran Vernon Anderson echoes Oliva’s concerns.
As a commander of the Elm Grove Memorial VFW Post 4442, he oversees 10 offices in the VFW. “So, I have some knowledge of what is going on with the Veterans Administration and our Veterans,” he exclusively told Breitbart News.
“I do not feel the Veterans Administration should be spending our taxpayer dollars sending these kinds of letters to our Veterans. The VA has a finite budget and they should be using all their resources to do the job Congress has assigned to them,” Anderson said.
Anderson told Breitbart News, the federal government is also potentially targeting veterans who are suffering from PTSD.
“If these Veterans say the wrong thing when visiting the VA the VA then turns that information over to the FBI and the information is entered into the National Instant Check System. This is the background system which is used whenever a person purchases a firearm. The Veteran doesn’t find out about this until the next time they attempt to purchase a firearm,” explained Anderson.
“I do not like what is happening. But I especially do not think the VA should be doing this with tax payer money,” he said. “This is not one of the functions the VA has been assigned. This is another Obama back door gun control measure.”
UPDATE:
Randal Noller, spokesperson from the Department of Veterans Affairs, told Breitbart News the gun locks are for public safety purposes.
“Gun locks are provided to all VA facilities and VA Suicide Prevention Coordinators as tools to use in patient safety programs and in support of safe gun storage practices, especially for Veterans who may be at high risk for suicide,” said Noller.
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