The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns.
Senior DOJ officials told CNN and ABC News that preliminary talks in recent days had discussed restricting transgender individuals from owning firearms.
It comes after two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed during a school shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis last week.
Highlights
- The DOJ is reportedly considering banning transgender people from owning firearms by labeling gender dysphoria as a mental illness.
- The Minneapolis school shooter was a 23-year-old transgender woman, prompting renewed debates on gun ownership restrictions.
- Gun Violence Archive data shows only five transgender individuals have been mass shooters since 2013, compared to 5,700 total.
- Transgender people are statistically more likely to be victims of violence, not perpetrators, experts and advocates emphasize.
Transgender woman Robin Westman was identified as the school shooter
Image credits: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The FBI identified the killer as a 23-year-old transgender woman, Robin Westman.
Following the incident, several right-wing commentators have floated the idea of banning guns for transgender Americans.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among those to suggest transgender people were a “problem” when it came to gun violence.
However, Gun Violence Archive (GVA) statistics show that from January 2013 to now, five transgender people have been reported as being mass shooters.
This is compared to 5,700 mass shootings in America, defined as incidents in which four or more people were killed, during that time period, GVA director Mark Bryant told CNN.
Data also shows that transgender people are far more likely to be the victim of a violent crime.
“The Constitution isn’t a privilege reserved for the few; it guarantees basic rights to all,” Laurel Powell, director of communications at the Human Rights Campaign, told ABC News.
“Transgender people are your neighbors, classmates, family members, and friends — and we deserve the full protection of our nation's laws, not anti-American nonsense from the White House.”
“If rights can be stripped from one group simply because of who they are, they can be stripped from anyone,” Powell added.
Sources familiar with the talks told CNN that the DOJ is considering whether it could declare transgender people mentally ill and in turn revoke their Second Amendment right to possess firearms.
If the proposal were to go ahead, it would likely face legal challenges and backlash from civil rights groups, as well as gun rights organizations.
Historically, there has been backlash against any proposal in the U.S. to restrict a person’s Second Amendment rights.
Under federal law, a person can be stripped of their rights to own a gun if a judge adjudicates them as “mentally defective.”
It is understood that the DOJ’s plan could look at using a diagnosis of gender dysmorphia to declare transgender people as mentally ill.
Trump has introduced several policies targeting trans people
Image credits: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Gender dysmorphia is when a person experiences significant distress because their biological sex does not match their gender identity.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) does recognize gender dysmorphia as a psychiatric diagnosis, but it does not recognize being transgender as such.
The goal, one DOJ official told CNN, is “to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell.”
“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,” the DOJ said in a statement.
Image credits: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“No specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.”
It comes amid Donald Trump’s rollback of transgender rights in the U.S.
Since he retook office in January, Trump has signed several executive orders targeting transgender individuals, including banning trans people from serving in the military.
He has also declared that the government and federal bodies will only recognize two sexes assigned at birth: male and female.
Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trans women and girls have also been banned from competing in women’s sports teams at federally funded institutions.
A recent U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee decision complying with Trump’s executive order confirmed that trans athletes would be banned from women’s sports.
The administration has also targeted trans youth by banning federal support for gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
This includes medical treatments and therapies recognized by major medical organizations as essential for the well-being of many trans adolescents.