Trump’s DOJ considers banning trans people from owning guns, labels them ‘mentally ill’

The Department of Justice, under Donald Trump, is looking at proposals to prevent trans people in the US buying and owning guns, unnamed officials have allegedly said.

As per reporting by CNN, the two Trump officials made the comments in the wake of a mass shooting which killed two children and injured 21 others.

On 27 August, at around 8.30am, Robin Westman, 23, killed Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, aged 8 and 10, after opening fire through the stained glass windows at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota as pupils attended a back-to-school mass.

Westman, who is believed to have been trans, died at the scene from a self-inflicted shotgun wound. The FBI is currently investigating the mass shooting as a domestic terrorism incident and “hate crime targeting Catholics”.

The unnamed sources told the outlet Trump officials in the DOJ are having discussions about declaring trans people inherently mentally ill to limit their right to own guns in the wake of the shooting – something which is set out in the Second Amendment and has long been a red line issue for Conservatives.

According to the official, the guns ban would be used “to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell”.

In recent years, the right-wing conspiracy theory that trans people in the United States – who make up around 0.6 per cent of the population – commit violent crime, namely mass shootings, at a higher rate than non-trans people has been gaining credence, despite the fact it has been frequently disproven.

Research taken from The Violence Project database of mass shootings – which collates data from the more than 190 mass shootings carried out since 1966 – outlines that cis men are the biggest perpetrators of mass shootings, making up 97 per cent of mass public shooters.

“So with 0.6 per cent of the population, transgender people would expect to be involved in about one shooting,” an analysis by Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler reported in March 2023.

The Gun Violence Archive’s set of criteria – which states a mass shooting must involve a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed and not including the shooter, to be counted – states trans people “would be expected to have committed at least 16 mass shootings since 2018”.

However, “instead there are just three possible cases cited by conservatives,” Kessler wrote at the time.

The conspiracy theory is popular amongst various right-wing figures, with Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr and Riley Gaines all sharing it on social media to their millions of followers.

In the wake of the shooting, right-wing commentator, Joey Mannarino, abhorrently said “trans people should to be “locked away and studied”, adding: “They need to be treated as we treat terror organisations.”

“It’s a slippery slope”

Commenting on the potential of such a policy, Alejandra Caraballo – a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School – told CNN a ban on trans people having guns based on mental health would negatively impact other groups in the US as well.

“This precedent being used against trans people could be used against veterans with PTSD,” Caraballo said. “It’s a slippery slope to make anyone lose their 2nd amendment rights.”

These alleged policy discussions come off the back of the Trump administration rolling back trans rights across the US.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump signed several executive orders specifically targeting the trans community. This included declaring the US will only recognise the two sexes assigned at birth, male and female, banning transgender people from serving in the military, and restricting gender-affirming healthcare for trans people under the age 19.