VA Ceases Decades of Second Amendment Rights Violations

AW1Ed | February 19, 2026 | 19 Comments

VA undoes decades-old wrong and protects Veterans’ Second Amendment rights

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs today announced a major new step to protect Veterans’ Second Amendment rights. Effective immediately, VA will not report Veterans to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System as “prohibited persons” only because they need help from a fiduciary in managing their VA benefits.

This corrects a three-decade-old wrong that deprived many thousands of Veterans in VA’s Fiduciary Program of their constitutional right to own a firearm without a legal basis.

After a thorough review, VA recognized that many Veterans had been deprived of their Second Amendment rights without hearings or adequate determinations that they posed a sufficient risk of danger to themselves or others. In consultation with the Department of Justice, VA has determined this practice violates both the Gun Control Act and Veterans’ Second Amendment rights. According to federal law, a decision by a judicial or quasi-judicial body is needed before someone can be reported to NICS.

A determination by the VA that a fiduciary is needed to help manage a Veteran’s VA benefits falls far short of this legal standard.

In addition to immediately stopping the reporting of VA Fiduciary Program participants to NICS, the department is working with the FBI to remove all past VA reporting from NICS, so no Veterans are unfairly deprived of their Second Amendment rights based solely on participation in VA’s Fiduciary Program.

“Many Americans struggle with managing their finances, and Veterans’ Second Amendment rights shouldn’t be stripped just because they need help in this area. But for too long, Veterans who needed the services of a VA fiduciary were deprived of their right to bear arms,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins. “Under the leadership of President Trump, we’re correcting this injustice and ensuring Veterans get the same due-process and constitutional rights as all Americans.”

VA.gov

Since 1998 under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, the Department of Veterans Affairs has provided records on beneficiaries for whom a fiduciary has been appointed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Questions arose as to why the VA is the only federal department or agency that has made substantial numbers of NICS referrals to the FBI based on mental incompetency determinations, even though other federal agencies that provide similar disability and income security benefits have not done so. The Social Security Administration comes to mind. This incongruity called into question whether VA benefit claims and disability rating procedures were substantive enough on their own to justify the taking of a constitutionally enumerated right like the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Hat tip to AW1 Rod for the head’s up.