Gun rights groups took aim Friday at the Trump administration’s reported consideration of a plan to restrict transgender Americans from owning firearms — claiming such a proposal is a nonstarter.
The National Rifle Association insists the Second Amendment “isn’t up for debate” as senior Justice Department officials have reportedly held internal deliberations about issuing regulations restricting transgender individuals from possessing guns in the wake of a shooting at a Catholic school in Minnesota that left two children dead and 17 others injured on August 27.
“The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase, possess and use firearms,” the group said in a statement posted on X 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.”
Associated Press
Court records show Robin Westman, 23, had applied for a name change due to her gender identity in 2020. She died from a self-inflicted wound following the school shooting, police said.
The Second Amendment Foundation, a Washington state-based gun rights advocacy nonprofit group, also blasted the Department of Justice‘s reported consideration of new firearm restrictions, saying it “stands resoundingly in opposition” of any such policies.
“The Second Amendment guarantees the rights of all Americans, and no subset of ‘the People’ can be singled out for disparate treatment as punishment for the criminal acts of an apparent member of the group,” SAF told Newsweek in a statement. “Gun owners are all too familiar with the tactic of punishing everyone for the evil criminal acts of an individual, and this issue is no different.”
The right to possess firearms can only be stripped away from Americans following “lengthy and thorough due process” that proves danger to society, according to SAF officials.
“Disarming trans individuals based purely on their self-identification flies in the face of the Constitution and the current administration’s purported support for the Second Amendment,” SAF’s statement concluded. “Beyond the bad policy and constitutional infirmities of such ‘considerations’ the Department of Justice has no authority to unilaterally identify groups of people that it would like to strip of their constitutional rights. SAF sincerely hopes that the reports of such considerations by the DOJ are inaccurate, as the policy reportedly being contemplated is worthy of the strongest possible condemnation and legal action.”
Gun Owners of America, a Virginia-based nonprofit with more than two million members and supporters, also denounced the Trump’s administration reported plans.
“Gun Owners of America does not compromise with our support for the right of all the People to keep and bear arms,” GOA senior vice president Erich Pratt told Newsweek in a statement. “That means we oppose any and all gun bans — whether proposed by Republicans or Democrats. Anti-gunners would happily label every gun owner ‘crazy’ in order to confiscate our firearms and infringe on our rights. We’re not going to give up an inch.”
The National Association for Gun Rights, meanwhile, noted that only a Title III court can adjudicate someone as “mentally defective” for purposes of firearm restriction.
“It is a judicial branch function, not an executive branch function,” NAGR president Dudley Brown told Newsweek in a statement. “This process — and only this process — is available today as it may apply to transgenders or to any American suffering from mental health issues, but taking rights away from any American without due process is an affront to the Constitution. All ex parte gun bans are unconstitutional.”
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Brown said any new regulations imposed by the government would be abused in the future against “ill-favored communities,” including conservatives and law-abiding gun owners.
“Our advice to the decision-makers over at the ATF, DOJ, and FBI is to stop chasing headlines on the back of the Second Amendment and focus on preserving and protecting gun rights so that law-abiding Americans can defend their loved ones from violent nutcases, criminals, and gang members,” Brown told Newsweek.
Tobias Barrington Wolff, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, said any attempt by the Trump administration to restrict access of firearms from an entire class of adults would lead to “swift and forceful” constitutional rebuke.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees an individual right to own firearms,” Wolff told Newsweek in a statement Friday. “Courts are still figuring out the exact contours of that right but categorically denying someone the ability to own firearms is obviously a serious burden on that right.”
The government may place limits on those found to pose a serious danger to others, but being transgender does not make a person mentally ill, Wolff said.
“That should not even need to be said in 2025,” he continued. “Nor do trans people have any pattern of greater rates of violence toward others. To the contrary, trans people are targets of violence at higher rates than almost any other group of people. There are no grounds for treating trans people as a danger or a menace and I predict the courts would quickly strike down any effort by this administration to take away their Second Amendment rights.”
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