The Department of Justice is reportedly considering a proposal to restrict transgender 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 Americans.
The proposal, according to CNN, 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.
Since taking office, Donald Trump 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.
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.
Yet Trump’s allies and right-wing media figures who have spent years seeking to remove trans people from public life have pounced on the Minnesota tragedy to build on political momentum targeting LGBT+ Americans.
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.”
Under federal law, a judge must determine whether a person is mentally “defective” or “committed to a mental institution” before they can be stripped of their right to own firearms.
Gender dysphoria is included in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, though having a gender identity inconsistent with one’s sex assigned at birth is not in itself a disorder.
The administration’s efforts to remove trans people from the military have similarly argued that gender dysphoria is “incompatible” with service.
The Pentagon has targeted service members “who have a current diagnosis or history of” or are “exhibiting symptoms” of gender dysphoria. Commanders who are “aware” of service members “with gender dysphoria, a history of gender dysphoria or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria” must perform “individualized medical record reviews,” according to a Pentagon memo.
The president’s January directive claims the “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
Subsequent Defense Department guidance claimed that “the medical, surgical and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
Meanwhile, 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.
“For too long, 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,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to all Justice Department employees earlier this year.
“It is the policy of this Department of Justice to use its full might to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” she said.
The Independent has requested comment from the White House.
