The National Rifle Association (NRA) has declared its opposition to any broad prohibitions on firearms, as the Justice Department weighs new limits on gun ownership for certain transgender individuals.
“The NRA does not support, and will not endorse, any policies that enforce sweeping bans, unfairly removing citizens’ Second Amendment rights without due process,” the NRA stated.
Officials from the DOJ indicated ongoing deliberations about restricting firearm purchases or ownership for some transgender individuals, based on criteria of identified gender dysphoria linked with mental instability, according to informed sources.
Gender dysphoria refers to the psychological distress stemming from a conflict between an individual’s birth-assigned sex and their perceived gender identity.
A Justice Department representative remarked, “We are assessing how to address violent acts linked to specific mental health issues and substance abuse. No concrete criminal justice measures have been proposed at this juncture.”
Discussions among DOJ officials are currently in preliminary phases, aiming to explore potential protective measures, insiders revealed.
“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 DOJ said in a separate statement.
What criteria the government would use to determine whether someone is “mentally unstable” is one of the many outstanding questions surrounding this issue.
One of the sources dismissed the description of the possible measure as a “transgender gun ban,” and stressed no final decisions have been made about whether to proceed with this rule.
This discussion follows last week’s shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church-school where a person who identifies as transgender shot into a congregation as a mass was ongoing, killing two students and wounding 18 others.
