How the VA "red flags" veterans

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This article by Michelle Malkin describes how the VA has a system whereby it labels certain veterans "disruptive" in order to reduce the medical services it provides to them. There are no defined standards and there is no due process. Some of the reasons veterans are defined as "disruptive" include complaining about long wait times or other neglectful care. She warns that this is a harbinger of how red flag laws could be used to deny firearms to anybody who doesn't toe the establishment line.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/08/07/warning-how-the-va-red-flags-patriots
 
Interesting. But I will never refrain from putting those people on the spot when I find them wanting in the performance of their duties. BTW- there is a VA hotline (that was set up by President Trump) for customer service issues. They are not affiliated with a specific facility or region. I used them once and had a good conversation with a retired 1SG who was in the 82nd when I was stationed at Bragg, and got a problem fixed in short order.
 
She warns that this is a harbinger of how red flag laws could be used to deny firearms to anybody who doesn't toe the establishment line.

This is exactly why red flags should be the biggest concern right now. The potential breadth of enforcement abuse is huge, much bigger than an "assault weapon" ban, or registration scheme, or anything else. I mentioned this elsewhere, but our local city attorney has been using GVROs (aka red flag) in cases where the person in question had already done something illegal with a gun, and therefore it wasn't even necessary to invoke such a procedure. It's all about posturing and this woman has higher political aspirations. Giving that sort of person a tool like that is a recipe for disaster.
 
i'm a veteran's advocate who uses the VA system for medical care. Retired from the US Army in 1979. i'm presently rated at 80 percent disabled. For the past ten years i've received great care from the VA. Prior to that i received some excellent care and some sorry care.

That is another raging rant by Michelle Malkin. No VA doctor has ever asked me anything about guns. Veterans come from that great mass of unwashed humanity that gives us boy molesting priests, serial killers and crooked cops. Yes, there some very disgruntled and unhappy veterans. Some patients have genuine grievances. Some are mental cases, others are hateful human beings. i know veterans from all three categories.

There are some problems with the VA. The VA has a very small formulary of medications that are available to veterans. One of the medications i take for a service connected disability falls into that category. That medication comes from Tri Care, who by the way, is attempting to substitute a much cheaper med that makes me very sick. I have letters going to my congressman.
 
No VA doctor has ever asked me anything about guns.

This statement is true BUT, in the pre-appointment checks by the nurse I have been asked if there are firearms in the home and if they are safely stored during the suicide screening process.
 
I stopped using the VA. A long time ago.
The front and back office are loaded with cretins and the medical staff is full of foreign medical school graduates.

I've been using the VA health care system for almost 40 years now. I've never had a foreign medical school graduate.

I've had a doctor who's parents were from Lebanon, I've had a doctor who's parents were from Nigeria, my current doctor's parents are from India, and I've received care from three world class doctors at VA expense.
 
I am a 70% disabled veteran who works in the lab. I sometimes have to do the one thing everybody hates, getting poked by someone else with a needle.

You could be the best phlebotomist (Latin for removing blood from the body) and someone will hate you for it. We see everybody for every reason from infection to tinnitus (ringing in the ear). All doctors need a blood baseline to diagnose with.

Not everyone has the same proficiency, we are all human. I was trained as a paramedic before I entered the service. The lady I work with frequently was a wound care nurse prior to coming to the lab. I have 3 degrees in health science, she has an LPN.

We have a new program where if you don’t want to come to the VA don’t. But you will have a $30 co-pay for urgent care. If you are experiencing chest pain or symptoms of a stroke Do NOT go to a CBOC. Go to the ER or better yet call 911! You’ll have 72 hrs from discharge to contact 3rd party billing.

Get the care that is best for you!!! I just had cancer removed at my local VA. Some people where fabulous others just wanted to do the job and leave ASAP.

To keep this gun related I still don’t agree with federal disarmament policy.
 
My son receives his medical care from the VA and he is very happy with it. He says that in the entire time he has been going to the VA no one, not one person, has ever said a word, not one word, to him about guns, ever. Maybe it's different in some other areas but that's the way it works here.
 
After some life threatening incompetence from doctors in the private sector before and immediately after I retired, I thank God that I
quailify for VA medical care. All of mine is through Dayton, and it is the best I’ve had since I was a child and most doctors were still Marcus Welby clones.
 
I've been using the VA health care system for almost 40 years now. I've never had a foreign medical school graduate.

Neither have i. On 26 August i will see an ophthalmologist at the VA. Most of the eye doctors have their own practice and work part time for the VA.
 
I've been using the VA health care system for almost 40 years now. I've never had a foreign medical school graduate.

Closest doctor to foreign at the VA is my primary care provider. She is 1st gen born American. Her parents fled the fall of Saigon. Great doctor though.

VA tries and struggles with a bad name. Some hospitals are good and far too many are bad or average. Even my own hospital (which rates great) has some hiccups. Within the last year I went to the VA ER for severe back pain that stopped me from standing up straight for 3 days. The wait time was unusually long and I was always within eye distance of a single nurse with a clip board. I had been automatically put on suicide watch because I am on a mild anti-depressant off label for headaches. I told the psychiatrist whom evaluated me that I didn't have any firearms at home just to get cleared to leave or get flagged somehow. As great as the VA has been for me, I do not trust them with that information.
 
The point of Malkin's article, and my posting it, was to show how an arbitrary classification of people by a governmental entity can be very harmful. She, and those of us worried about red flag laws, are concerned that the execution of red flag laws could be equally harmful. It was not my intention to revisit the Obama VA's decision (since reversed by Trump) to prevent certain vets from having guns, or to discuss whether the VA asks about gun ownership.
 
In the best circumstances, the justification to red flag someone will have to be vague for it to be useful. And vague is never good in the execution of laws. If something like this comes to pass, we are essentially allowing a new wildcard criterion for determining a prohibited person. It's almost like a checkbox labeled "other".
 
If you're a Veteran who interacts with the VA health care system you can go to www.myhealth.va.gov and download your medical records.

That website works a little too well. I had gotten used to government websites having limited or no functionality. It was a surprise how useful that site has been. I have been able to order prescription refills, request doctor appointments, and download my lab results. It is also how I learned my cholesterol was a little too high, so that is something I can work on.
 
I use the VA , service connected , I was there today . I like them better then my private plan . They have asked me about guns in the home . I am a benchrest shooter , reload my own bullets , handgun and rifle . At 72 and been shooting firearms for 60 years . Be a shame if it come back to bit me in the ass.
 
Went to a VA medical facility a few months ago. They told me, “we’re not taking any new patients.” No list, no come back later, nothing. Guess their backlogs were cleared up and the million dollar bonuses started back to flowing. Meanwhile, during that same time frame, three vets in different states committed suicide in VA parking lots. Makes you go, hmmmmm.

Still haven’t heard from my representative. Guess I’ll have to go park myself in his office.
 
I have no intention of getting loud, Some "crazy people" are having command voices. That would be perceived as having commands that are a creature of his MI. You may be perfectly civil with your own bubbly personality. The client/patient may be seeing you as the Devil with horns and tail etc. His command voices may from God. "God" may be telling him to kill all Devils. Other voices may be telling him to take his own life. How would you like that person to be sitting there with a loaded AR. A small minority of these people can be dangerous as hell. Without being snarky, some of comments show some folks do not have a clue.
 
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