Now here’s a smart move: Sen. Richard Burr wants to be sure that whacked-out veterans can get their hands on guns. Burr, a U.S. Senator from North CArolina who’s been making moves to ascend the national GOP ladder, has apparently found that one way to do so is to climb right up the National Rifle Association’s butt. This week, he introduced a bill that would prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from declaring veterans mentally unfit to own a gun. Burr said that some veterans were added to the agency’s “mentally defective” list not because they were a risk but because the VA assigned them guardians to oversee their finances — which is what happens when veterans are mentally unable to handle their own affairs. Burr’s bill is irresponsible in that mentally unstable veterans are a high risk for committing suicide, not to mention the fact that no one wants crazy guys with visions of roadside bombs walking around their neighborhoods with loaded weapons. With so many returning Iraq veterans, who have been subjected to long and repeated tours of duty, coming home with mental problems, Burr’s bill seems particularly ill-advised, not to mention grossly butt-kissing toward his NRA buds.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2008.
I have 3 friends who have all been in Iraq, one in the Army, one in the Air Force, another in the Marines. Each one has killed at least 30 people. Two of them have been there twice. One of them has been in Afghanistan twice as well. I would absolutely prefer they have guns than you have a keyboard. Fortunately for everyone there is such a thing called the constitution which gives them and you the same rights.