The US Justice Department is reportedly considering prohibiting firearm sales to individuals who identify as transgender, according to a source within the department.
The development follows after 23 year old Robin Westman, who identified as trans, fatally shot two young children and wounded 17 others during a mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis last month.
The proposed measure targeting transgender Americans, who comprise 0.8% of adults and 3.3% of young people, marks a further intensification of the Trump administration’s campaign to remove rights and recognition from those who do not conform to traditional heterosexual and gender norms, broadly characterising them as dangerous and mentally unstable.
However, research by Mother Jones this month revealed that 134 out of 141 mass shootings since 1982 in America were perpetrated by men with no record of transgender identification, reports The Mirror US.
“Individuals within the DOJ are reviewing ways to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell,” one Justice Department official allegedly informed The Daily Wire.
Prohibiting gun ownership for a specific demographic of Americans would likely encounter legal challenges, as it could breach the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.
Preserving the right to purchase and possess firearms has remained a fundamental principle of the Republican Party for decades. “I am sorry to say that as a 2A supporter, I can’t support the condemnation of an entire group of people due to the few bad apples,” one user responded to the news of the Justice Department’s new consideration.
“They have to base it on the mental health evals and not just a blanket ban.”
In the wake of the Minneapolis shooting, far-right voices predictably focused on the shooter’s gender identity.
“Today’s evil church school shooter was a trans who was likely groomed and transitioned as a teenager,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga. ) posted online.
“Congress MUST PASS my bill Protecting Children’s Innocence Act to make it a FELONY to perform sex change surgeries and all forms of medications on minors! ! !”.
“One thing is VERY clear: the trans movement is radicalising the mentally ill into becoming violent terrorists who target children for murder,” said conservative YouTube host Benny Johnson. “The pattern is undeniable.
“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 for the Justice Department stated. “No specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.”
The idea that gun violence incidents involving transgender individuals are statistically significant contradicts the data on the subject. According to Mother Jones, The Gun Violence Archive, which monitors shootings with four or more victims, discovered in 2024 that less than 1% of shootings over the past decade were committed by people who identified as trans.
In a report about President Donald Trump’s approach to LGBTQ rights, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated that after his inauguration in 2017, “we witnessed a sustained, years-long effort to erase protections for LGBTQ people across the entire federal government.
“This included an all-of-government effort to ‘define “transgender” out of existence’ by eroding protections for transgender students and workers, and weakening access to gender-affirming health care most transgender people already struggled to access.”
Looking ahead to a potential second term for Trump, the ACLU predicted he would “weaponise federal law against transgender people across the country.
“He plans to use federal laws – including laws meant to safeguard civil rights – as a cudgel to override critical state-level protections, arguing that state laws that protect transgender students violate the federal statutory rights of non-transgender students.
“Additionally, a second Trump administration would take the extreme position that the Constitution entitles employers to discriminate against LGBTQ people based on their religious beliefs, notwithstanding state nondiscrimination laws. And, shockingly, it would try to erase transgender people from public life entirely by using federal obscenity laws to criminalize gender nonconformity.”