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May 26, 2026
NSSF-Supported Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act to End VA’s Decades of NICS Abuse Passes House
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, sending the U.S. Senate and the American people a clear message that veterans should not lose their constitutional rights because the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides assistance in managing their finances and benefits.
After we recently celebrated Memorial Day, that should not be a controversial proposition.
Since 2024, Congress has been successful in including language in their annual Military Construction and Department of Veterans Affairs funding bill that prohibits the VA from reporting veterans’ names to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) based on the use of a fiduciary without due process. The current “rider” expires Sept. 30, 2026.
H.R. 1041, sponsored by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and supported by NSSF, would permanently prohibit the VA from transmitting a veteran’s personally identifying information to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for use in FBI NICS solely because that veteran has been assigned a fiduciary. The Senate companion, S. 478, sponsored by U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and co-led by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), is already pending a vote in the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
Bureaucracy Is Not Due Process
For decades, the VA treated a fiduciary appointment as though it were a constitutional disqualifier making the veteran a “prohibited person.” That meant veterans who needed help managing benefits they earned through service to the nation could be reported to NICS, barring these veterans from exercising their Second Amendment rights without a court ever finding they were in fact a danger to themselves or others.
That is not due process, it is bureaucracy masquerading as a legally required adjudication.
The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act draws a line where it should be. The VA could not report a veteran or beneficiary to NICS solely because a fiduciary was appointed. A report could only be made when there is an order or finding by a judicial authority that the individual is a danger to themselves or others, which is an important distinction.
A veteran who needs help balancing a checkbook, paying bills or managing VA benefits has not surrendered a constitutional right. Financial assistance is not a criminal conviction or a lawful substitute for due process.
The Trump Administration Already Corrected Course
The House action follows President Donald Trump’s second administration’s move earlier this year to stop the VA’s decades-old practice.
VA Secretary Doug Collins announced that, effective immediately, VA’s policy of reporting veterans to NICS as “prohibited persons” simply because they need help from a fiduciary in managing VA benefits is no more. VA also acknowledged that many veterans had already been deprived of their Second Amendment rights without hearings or adequate determinations that they posed a sufficient risk of danger to themselves or others.
Former U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi made clear the DOJ supports the action, saying that it is unlawful and unacceptable for veterans who served the country to have their constitutional rights stripped by bureaucratic fiat. She directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to review regulations and propose changes to prevent current and future violations of veterans’ Second Amendment rights.
The executive branch has recognized the problem. Congress now has the responsibility to enshrine the protections in law and ensure a future administration — possibly an anti-Second Amendment one — cannot simply reverse course and restart the same abuses.
Executive action is welcome. Statutory protection is required.
Protecting Veterans and the Integrity of NICS
The VA’s old practice did more than violate Second Amendment rights. It undermined confidence in the background check system itself by treating administrative benefit management decisions as if they were judicial findings. That is dangerous policy.
It also risks discouraging veterans from seeking help, out of fear they will be stripped of their Second Amendment rights. No veteran should have to choose between getting assistance they need with earned benefits and preserving the constitutional freedoms they defended in uniform.
The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act restores the proper standard. It protects veterans from being wrongly reported. It preserves lawful avenues for reporting when a court or judicial authority has made the required finding. It also directs VA to notify DOJ when previously transmitted information no longer applies.
That is a clean, narrow and necessary fix.
Senate Should Act
Chairman Bost, Sen. Kennedy and the lawmakers backing this legislation are not creating a special right for veterans. They are insisting veterans receive the same constitutional protection every non-veteran American has. Rights are not privileges handed out by agency officials. They are not subject to administrative convenience. They cannot be erased because a veteran needs help managing benefits.
The Trump administration has already shown where this policy belongs — in the dustbin. VA Secretary Collins took decisive action to stop the abuse. The DOJ backed the correction. ATF has been directed to review its rules. Now Congress should lock it down in statute.
Veterans swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Congress must honor that service by making certain the government never again uses a VA fiduciary appointment as a backdoor gun ban.
The Senate should pass the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act quickly and send it to President Trump’s desk.
That would not just correct bad policy. It would reaffirm a basic truth too many in Washington, D.C., forget: Due Process is not optional, and veterans do not leave their Second Amendment rights at the VA’s front door.
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