Michael Connelly
For
months we at the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) have been involved in
a protracted battle with four federal agencies over FOIA requests that we made
regarding the denial of Second and Fifth Amendment rights to American veterans.
At the time we made the requests we knew there were four federal agencies
involved in the effort to disarm America’s heroes; the VA, the FBI, the DOD,
and DHS. Three of the agencies basically refused to give us the information we
asked for.
The
exception was the FBI, which sent us a copy of the memorandum of agreement
between the FBI and the VA that we had already obtained when we won a suit
against the VA and it was forced to give it to us. The memo was appalling
because it basically involved the FBI agreeing that it would classify all
veterans declared incompetent to handle their own financial affairs to be
mentally defective to the point of being a danger to themselves or others.
The
veterans would then be placed on the NICS list under the category of persons adjudicated
to be mentally defective and prohibited from purchasing firearms. The agreement
proves that this is being done without adjudication or even in most cases an
examination or diagnosis by a physician. In other words, it is a calculated
effort by government agencies to deny due process to veterans and disarm them.
Then
several weeks ago we were stunned to receive a response to our FOIA requests
from a fifth federal agency that we had not sent a request to, the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATF). The agency said that the FBI
sent seven pages of documents to the BATF to determine if they should be turned
over to us. The BATF informed us that we could not see any of the documents.
The
excuse given for this refusal was that the documents involved “inter-agency or
intra-agency memorandums or letters”. No other relevant information is given.
So now we know that there is another federal agency conspiring with the FBI and
possibly the VA and other agencies to deny veterans there Second Amendment
rights. Yet, we don’t know what this collusion involves, or even what these
documents relate to. We are preparing an appeal to try and force delivery of
the documents to us.
So,
think about this we have Islamic terrorists running amok around the world and
threatening Americans here and abroad, veterans dying because they can’t get
medical care from the VA, and foreign criminals coming freely over our southern
border and murdering American citizens. The Obama response to all of this is to
have five major federal agencies that should be protecting Americans and taking
care of our veterans devoting their resources to disarming veterans. Doesn’t
that make you feel safer? It doesn’t do much for me.
Of
course, there is the fact that all of this violates the Constitution of the
United States. But that is all irrelevant to Obama and the agencies involved. The
attack on veterans continues, as does our fight to protect them.
Michael
Connelly
mrobertc@hotmail.com
