The National Rifle Association announced its opposition to a reported consideration from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice to take away gun rights for transgender citizens.
In the wake of last week’s Annunciation Catholic Church shooting by a transgender gunman, multiple outlets reported that the DOJ is reviewing its ability to possibly take away gun rights for transgender people. The NRA is taking the side of transgender gun owners, announcing its stance in a post on X.
“The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase, possess, and use firearms,” it said Friday. ”NRA does not, and will not, support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”
It added: “The Second Amendment isn’t up for debate.”
Gun Owners of America, a gun rights lobbying group often considered more hardline than the NRA, similarly expressed its opposition to the plan.
“GOA opposes any & all gun bans. Full stop,” it said in a post on X, quoting an article about the plans.
The opposition from gun rights groups further complicates the reported plans, which the DOJ has not directly confirmed.
“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.
A DOJ official told CNN that such a restriction is meant “to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell.”
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Conservative figures directed scrutiny at the fitness of transgender individuals to carry weapons after the Annunciation shooting, the fifth time in five years that a transgender or nonbinary person carried out a mass shooting, three of which targeted school children.
Critics of the DOJ’s alleged plan argued that such a move would unconstitutionally target a minority group without proper justification. Transgender groups have accused the Trump administration of baselessly attacking the transgender community since retaking office in January.
