The Trump administration is reportedly considering a “range of options” to stem the flow of mass shootings by transgender perpetrators that could include a ban on gun ownership for transgender people.
“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 Justice Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
The shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school in August marked the fifth time in the last five years that a transgender or nonbinary person targeted innocent people in a mass shooting event, and the third time in that stretch where the targets were almost exclusively school children.
Clearly, the pro-transgender propaganda that has permeated Western societies for the better part of the last decade is at least partially to blame for these tragedies. Most conservatives, and other sober-minded thinkers, agree that transgender people suffer from mental illness, specifically gender dysphoria, but focusing on firearms would miss the forest for the trees and comes along with likely insurmountable legal difficulties.
Transgender ideology must be defeated, and certain signposts suggest that a conservative victory on the issue is on the horizon. Twenty-four states have banned biological males from competing in women’s sports, including powerhouse population centers such as Florida, Texas, and Georgia. Twenty-seven states have enacted laws limiting or banning so-called “gender-affirming care” for children, and 21 states have outright bans on the macabre practice. The second Trump administration has prohibited support for “gender-affirming care” for minors and directed the Department of Health and Human Services to remove such care from Medicare and Medicaid, and labeled “gender ideology” itself as “anti-American.”
Left-wing author Malcolm Gladwell recently admitted that he is “ashamed” that the Left cowed him into silence on the issue of biological men competing in women’s sports, and generally left-wing celebrities from Bette Midler to Snoop Dogg have felt comfortable criticizing the culture’s pervasive LGBT propaganda.
As the tide turns away from years of leftist dominance on transgender issues, running headlong into a certain defeat at the Supreme Court would be a mistake by the Trump DOJ. Under current federal law, only people who have been committed to a mental institution or have been adjudicated as mentally defective are banned from owning guns. Proving in court that all transgender people fall under these categories would be difficult, to say the least.
A new precedent was set by the Right’s landmark Supreme Court victory in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022): When the text of the Second Amendment covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. Justice Clarence Thomas said in his majority opinion, “The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Certainly, a blanket ban on millions of people owning firearms is a far cry from that historical tradition.
Focusing on guns instead of continuing the popular and effective fight against transgender ideology would be a disaster politically as well. The Right is winning the argument on gun ownership. Bruen carved away many of the goals of left-wing politicians who long to deprive people of their God-given right to self-defense, and it could lead to more gun laws being struck down as unconstitutional. Thirty-four states have passed constitutional carry, meaning well north of half of the population can now carry a firearm without a permission slip from the government.
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While Democrats may pretend to support the Second Amendment if the Trump DOJ does issue a ban on transgender people owning guns, behind closed doors, they would like nothing more than to be able to use this precedent as an excuse to disarm their political opponents in the future.
Preventing people from owning guns is a leftist tactic that is sure to backfire, either in the immediate or long term. The Trump administration should focus on the tasks at hand and leave unconstitutional gun control policies to the other party.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.
