Senate Dem to vote against funding bill over GOP gun provision

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Wednesday he will vote against the latest government funding package over a Republican-backed provision he argued could allow more “mentally ill individuals” to purchase guns.

As part of a sweeping government funding package Congress is set to pass this week, both Republicans and Democrats agreed to a provision aimed at allowing veterans who require assistance managing their benefits to be able to purchase guns.

Republicans pushed for the measure to be included in the government funding package after a similar GOP-backed effort briefly slowed progress on funding last year.

While Republicans say the proposal was key to keeping veterans who need help managing their money from losing their gun rights, Democrats have sounded alarms about the impact the measure could have on veterans’ suicide rates, as well as the potential for those deemed “mentally incompetent” to have firearms.  

In a series of posts Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, Murphy argued the provision could “result in 20,000 new seriously mentally ill individuals being able to buy guns each year,” and said “Democrats shouldn’t have acquiesced” in spending talks.

“Republicans (and one or two Democrats) pushed for the new rider that allows, for the first time in 30 years, veterans judged by the VA to be mentally incompetent to buy guns. These are very very mentally ill veterans — those at the highest risk of suicide,” he also wrote.

On the VA’s website, the office says its program is designed to protect vets and beneficiaries deemed “unable to manage their VA benefits through the appointment and oversight of a fiduciary.”

“If you have been determined unable to manage your VA benefits, the VA will conduct a field examination to appoint a fiduciary to assist you,” the website states.

The office says it reports the names of “incompetent beneficiaries” to the FBI in compliance with the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act — which bars individuals from buying guns if they’ve been “adjudicated as a mental defective.”

The FBI then adds the names to its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) — which deals are required to check before selling someone a gun. The VA states that veterans can apply for “relief of firearms prohibitions imposed by the law by submitting your request to the VA.”

The funding package that includes the provision removing this program could pass the House as early as Wednesday, as congressional leaders are working quickly to clear their first batch of bipartisan funding bills for fiscal 2024 ahead of a government shutdown deadline this weekend.

The 1,050-page package includes more than $450 billion in fiscal 2024 funding for a slew of offices including the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Commerce and Energy.