Trump DOJ Reportedly Looking to Ban Trans Americans From Owning Guns

(AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The Trump administration is reportedly looking at ways to keep transgender Americans from owning guns in the wake of last week’s Minneapolis Catholic school shooting by a suspect who identified as trans-feminine.

Two children were killed in that attack, with at least 21 injured.

“Such a move would represent a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s fight against the rights of transgender Americans,” CNN reported, especially since restricting gun rights in any capacity has long been a line in the sand for Republicans.

The DOJ is reportedly looking at ways to designate transgender people as mentally ill and therefore ineligible to exercise their Second Amendment rights, one Justice official told CNN.

“The vast majority of mass attacks in the US have no connection to transgender people,” the report stated, “Still, after the deadly shooting last week, some conservative allies of the president quickly claimed that gender dysphoria – the psychological distress and discomfort some people feel when there’s a difference between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity – is a mental illness that should bar citizens from purchasing a firearm.”

A 2023 report by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Association Center found that from 2016 to 2020, 96% of shooters were men, 3% women, and 2% transgender.

When he took office in January, Trump quickly signed two executive orders aimed at transgender people. One barred them from serving in the military, while the other ordered federal prisons to house transgender inmates in lockups corresponding to their gender at birth.

In addition, Attorney General Pam Bondi has targeted medical facilities providing gender-affirming care by sending more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that have provided services to minors.