The Justice Department is discussing proposals to potentially block transgender Americans from buying firearms, sources told The Post.
In the wake of the deadly Minneapolis Catholic church shooting conducted by Robin Westman, who identified as a trans woman, DOJ officials are mulling options the Trump administration can take to restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of some Americans, sources familiar with the talks said.
Some DOJ members believe the move can be approved as a follow up on Trump’s executive order barring military service by transgender people.
One option could see Trump formally declare that people who identify as transgender are mentally ill and are not legally allowed to possess firearms, one Justice official told CNN.
The controversial move has gained steam among conservatives following Westman’s rampage at the Annunciation Catholic Church, where the shooter killed two children and injured 21 others.
Here’s what we know about the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis
- Students had begun their first week of school at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two days before the shooting.
- Robin Westman, a 23-year-old trans woman, opened fire through the stained glass windows on Wednesday morning during a celebratory back-to-school Mass filled with children.
- The shooting killed two children and injured at least 18 others, before Westman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
- Westman had written “Kill Donald Trump” and “for the children” on gun magazines, and posted videos of a handwritten manifesto.
- Westman’s mother had worked at the school.
Westman had legally purchased the firearms used to kill the students, with the demonic gunman seen on security footage grinning as he tested out the weapons at Frontiersman Sports in St. Louis Park, KSTP reported.
While the vast majority of mass shootings in the US have no connection to transgender people, talking points over transgender violence have started to dominate conservative media.
Senior White House officials, however, cautioned that any proposal to ban weapons would likely run into a slew of legal complications, sources told the Post.
Federal law requires that only a judge can declare someone mentally “defective” and strip them of their right to own firearms.
A mass ban on transgender people would therefore find itself difficult to implement or enforce.
Despite the hurdles, a DOJ spokesman said that a “range of options” are on the table, the Daily Wire reported.
“Under Attorney General Bondi’s leadership this Department of Justice is actively considering a range of options to prevent mentally unstable individuals from committing acts of violence, especially at schools,” the spokesman said.
Bondi has previously advocated for gun restriction laws while serving as Florida’s attorney general, where she defended a state law that raised the age requirement to purchase firearms in the wake of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.
She has also taken aim at transgender treatments across the US, sending more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics who have provided transgender medical procedures to minors.
