Note To Biden: Gun Stores Aren't Responsible For Veteran Suicides :: 11/29/2021

Suicide is a serious problem, but it’s especially problematic among veterans. Many of the brave men and women who fought for our nation and survived find they can’t seem to make it through peace quite as well, so they claim their own lives.

Few people don’t see this as a significant issue. The problem is that we rarely agree on how to address it.

After all, we live in a world where President Joe Biden seems to blame gun stores for those veteran suicides.

The Biden-Harris administration is using veteran suicides to garner public support for their war on gun dealers, whom they blame for skyrocketing violent crime rates in cities historically controlled by Democrats.

“The Biden administration is rolling out a new initiative aimed at reducing suicides by gun and combating the significant increases in suicides by members of the military and veterans,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday. As part of the plan, Biden will order the ATF to “seek to revoke the licenses of dealers the first time that they violate federal law.”

This is nothing new. Biden first announced he was targeting gun dealers in June. The only difference is now he’s doing it for the veterans.

That’s sick – even for Biden – using the deaths of heroes to sell his gun control plan.

The other team doesn’t care. They love the plan. John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told the AP the administration was “blazing a new path to keep guns away from people who could be a danger to themselves.”

To be clear, gun dealers – even the rogue ones – do not contribute to veteran suicides. The Veterans Administration contributes to veteran suicides. If a veteran decides they need help, they’ll spend months fighting to get the VA to accept that their illness is service-related and that they qualify for care. Democrats want to give away universal healthcare. In my humble opinion, it should go to the people who have earned it. All veterans should have access to immediate care.

It’s true. Trying to navigate the VA healthcare system makes a trip to the DMV look like a visit to a Chic-fil-A driver-through. There’s no way that helps.

So why is Biden trying to pin it on gun dealers?

The answer, of course, is that he’s been looking to blame gun stores for all manner of ills and has since he took office. If he could blame the current inflation on them, he probably would.

Since he despises gun stores so vehement, it stands to reason that he’d try and blame them for veteran suicides.

The problem is, of course, that gun stores aren’t really to blame.

Unless someone walks into the store and asks something like, “Which gun is best for killing myself with?” it’s kind of hard for the dealer to realize there may be an issue there. After all, this is a law-abiding citizen with no felonies and hasn’t been adjudicated as “mentally defective” by the courts. There’s nothing there for a store to see that maybe this is someone who shouldn’t buy a gun.

Blaming the stores doesn’t make any sense.

Then again, little of Biden’s anti-gun jihad has made much sense. Most guns used by criminals are stolen, but he’s focused on straw buys. Now he’s looking at them to pin the blame for suicides on them.

While I agree suicide is an issue, it’s not a gun issue. It’s a mental health issue.

If Biden really wants to reduce veteran suicide numbers, there are some steps he could take. One would be to make sure that the VA doesn’t try to interfere with people’s right to keep and bear arms, as they have in the past. Veterans need to be free to talk with their counselors without fear of their guns being taken. If not, many may hold back how they feel, which means not getting the help they truly need.

Then there’s the issue of access, which was mentioned in the above-linked post. It’s not easy getting your first appointment with the VA and it can take a while on the follow-ups as well.

But none of this is the fault of gun stores and Biden–or his administration, at least–damn well knows it.

https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2021/11/29/gun-stores-suicides-2-n52610