Trans and Guns: Let's Take a Look
By Gregory Kielma
3 Gun-Rights Groups Voice Opposition To Reported Trans Firearm Ban Proposal. Whats your thoughts? Let's Take a Look.
3 Gun-Rights Groups Voice Opposition To Reported Trans Firearm Ban Proposal
Media reports that the Trump Administration might be considering a move to ban gun ownership for trans Americans following the August 27 shooting at a Catholic school and church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have some gun-rights groups speaking out.
The attack at Church of the Annunciation, committed by a young man who had legally changed his name to a woman’s name, left two elementary-age children dead and 17 other people injured. In the aftermath, several media outlets, including CNN, reported that senior Justice Department officials are “weighing proposals” to limit gun ownership rights of trans individuals.
That proposal has drawn the ire of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the National Rifle Association. All three groups say such a move would violate the Second Amendment.
“Prohibiting whole groups of people from owning and using firearms because a sick individual misused a gun to harm and kill children is as reprehensible as restricting the rights of all law-abiding citizens because some people have committed crimes,” Alan Gottlieb, CCRKBA chairman, said in a news release addressing the issue. “That anyone in the Trump administration would consider such nonsense is alarming.”
As Gottlieb further pointed out, such a blanket prohibition, which would affect an unknown number of people who haven’t harmed anyone, is simply wrong.
“Gun owners already know what it’s like for the government to penalize them for crimes they did not commit,” Gottlieb said. “We shouldn’t even consider such an extreme response to a heinous act committed by one disturbed individual, much less implement it, no matter how horrible the crime. The deranged Minneapolis killer is no longer a threat to anybody, and we needn’t make scapegoats of others who had nothing to do with that outrage, just to create the impression something is being done.”
Gottlieb said the ironic part of the whole situation is that some in the so-called “mainstream” media are suddenly supporting gun rights because somebody in the Trump administration is talking about restricting transgender individuals from exercising their Second Amendment rights.