In a rare win for sanity in the federal bureaucracy, the Department of Veterans Affairs has just announced it’s scrapping a pernicious policy that’s haunted gun owners for decades: automatically reporting veterans to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) simply because they rely on a fiduciary to manage their benefits. This wasn’t some minor paperwork glitch—it was a blanket due process violation, where the government presumed mental incompetence based on financial assistance alone, effectively disarming vets without a hearing, trial, or even a doctor’s note. Picture this: a Purple Heart recipient, fully capable of handling a rifle but needing help with VA red tape, suddenly branded a prohibited person under federal law. No more. The VA’s reversal, detailed in their recent guidance, restores these heroes’ Second Amendment rights by requiring actual evidence of adjudicated incompetency before any NICS flags fly.

This move isn’t just bureaucratic housecleaning; it’s a seismic shift with deep roots in the post-1968 Gun Control Act era, when Congress lumped mental defectives into the prohibited categories without ironclad definitions. Critics, including the NRA and groups like Gun Owners of America, have hammered this policy for years, pointing to cases like the 2013 pushback from Sen. Chuck Grassley that exposed how it ensnared tens of thousands of vets—many combat-tested and sharper than the average desk jockey. The implications for the 2A community are electric: it sets a precedent against presumptive disarmament, challenging the ATF’s slippery slope toward broader red flag expansions. If the feds can’t kneecap veterans on a fiduciary technicality, what’s next—your grandma’s power of attorney? This bolsters challenges to state-level gun confiscation laws lacking due process, reminding bureaucrats that the Constitution doesn’t evaporate at the first whiff of paperwork.

For the pro-2A faithful, celebrate this as a tactical victory, but stay vigilant—it’s the VA under Biden-Harris, after all, and reversals can reverse. Rally your networks, contact your reps to lock this in via legislation like the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, and keep the pressure on. In the endless war for our rights, this is proof that persistence pays off: one less backdoor to the registry state, one more brick in the wall against tyranny. Semper Fi, Second Amendment style.