News of a potential plan from Donald Trump’s administration to block transgender Americans from owning firearms was met with an avalanche of opposition — including from major Second Amendment groups historically aligned with Republicans.
The National Rifle Association, among the nation’s largest and most influential lobbying groups, said “the Second Amendment isn’t up for debate.”
“The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase, possess and use firearms,” the group said in a statement Friday.
“NRA does not, and will not, support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process,” the group said.
Gun Owners of America, another major gun rights lobbying group, said it “opposes any and all gun bans. Full stop.”
The Department of Justice is in the early stages of developing a proposal to prohibit trans Americans from possessing firearms, marking a dramatic reversal of the Trump administration’s pledges to preserve Second Amendment rights while escalating the president’s attacks against trans people.
The proposal comes in the wake of a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church allegedly committed by a 23-year-old trans woman, which has fueled conspiracy theories and right-wing outrage baselessly alleging trans people are predisposed to commit violence.
Restricting trans people from firearms is designed “to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell,” a Justice Department official told CNN.
“The DOJ is actively evaluating options to prevent the pattern of violence we have seen from individuals with specific mental health challenges and substance abuse disorders,” a spokesperson told The Independent.
“No specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.”
Justice Department officials are reportedly discussing whether to define being transgender as a mental illness that could, under already-existing regulations, prevent someone from possessing a firearm.
Under federal law, a judge must determine a person to be mentally “defective” or “committed to a mental institution” before they can be stripped of their right to own firearms.
Since taking office, the president has issued a series of directives targeting trans Americans, including an executive order that erases federal recognition of trans people and other measures that restrict gender-affirming healthcare and ban trans athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The Department of Defense has also forced out thousands of trans service members from all branches of the military, arguing that people with gender dysphoria are “incompatible” with service.
Trans people are not linked to higher rates of violence, and the overwhelming majority of mass attacks are committed by cisgender men. Trans people are also more than four times likely to be victims of violent crimes, including rape and sexual assault, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
The president has repeatedly hailed himself as a great protector of the Second Amendment and even ordered the Justice Department to audit anything on the books that would hinder the right to bear arms.
In a memo to all Justice Department employees earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the “Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right.”
“No more,” she wrote. “It is the policy of this Department of Justice to use its full might to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, told federal agencies to “stop chasing headlines on the back of the Second Amendment and focus on preserving and protecting gun rights so that law-abiding Americans can defend their loved ones from violent nutcases, criminals, and gang members.”
“I think every major gun rights org has now spoken against this trans gun ban idea. To the extent it was a trial balloon, we all hit it like a clay pigeon,” said Kostas Moros, director of legal research and education at the Second Amendment Foundation.
“Hope that’s enough to get the [administration] to drop this bad idea, and get back to their work defending the Second Amendment, on which they have thus far done an excellent job,” he added.
