The US Government has once again placed two of the most sensitive and divisive issues in the country’s political life at the center of the debate: weapons and the rights of transgender people.
As revealed The Wall Street Journalsenior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) discussed the possibility of prevent trans people from buying firearmsafter the shooting last week in a Catholic church in Minneapolis which left two minors dead and several injured.
The attacker was a 23-year-old girl who identified as a trans woman, Robin M. Westman.
Internal conversations, according to sources cited by the newspaper, revolved around the idea of using existing legislation that restricts access to weapons for people with mental illnesses.
The intention was to explore whether this legal framework could expand to include transgender citizens.
Although at the moment there is no formal proposal on the table, the mere fact that a measure of this type has been debated has unleashed a strong reaction.
Explosive balloon probe
The DOJ spokesperson acknowledged that the department is “actively evaluating options to prevent the pattern of violence observed in individuals with certain mental health challenges and substance abuse.”
But he clarified that “no specific criminal justice proposal has been advanced at this time.”
The White House, for its part, did not want to comment.
Despite this caution, the leak has set off alarms among groups defending the right to bear armsa group that constitutes one of the political and economic pillars of Trumpism.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) invested tens of millions of dollars in the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and related organizations have been quick to warn that the Government would be crossing a dangerous line.
“Banning guns to a certain type of people is crazy.. “History shows that any new rules the government invents will end up being used against disadvantaged communities, including conservatives and law-abiding gun owners,” he denounced. Taylor Rhodesportavoz de la National Association for Gun Rights.
At least one influential leader of the movement has already addressed the White House to express concern and received assurances that there will be no immediate progress.
Questioned trans rights
The episode is framed in a broader context of the Trump administration’s offensive against the rights of trans people.
The president has already ordered prohibit their presence in Armed Forces and has threatened to cut funds to states that allow trans women compete on women’s sports teams.
The possibility of also restricting their access to weapons would be an unprecedented step in American policy.
LGTBQ organizations have denounced that the mere idea constitutes a direct attack against the entire community.
“Those so-called conservatives who advocate taking away the Second Amendment without due process are sawing off the branch on which they sit.“, he warned Erin Palettefounder of Operation Blazing Sword, a group that trains LGTBQ people in the use of weapons.
Exceptional cases
In the last 40 years, only two cases of perpetrators of school shootings in USA that they were transgender.
It is about Alec (Maya) McKinneyone of those responsible for the attack in 2019 against the STEM School Highlands Ranch, in Colorado, identified by the courts as a trans man.
and of Audrey Haleauthor of the shooting of 2023 at The Covenant School in Nashville, who police said identified as male.
Added to these two cases is that of Robin M. Westman in Minneapolis.
These episodes, although highly covered in the media, represent a tiny minority compared to the overwhelming pattern of cisgender male shooters in the “school shootings”, which count more than 800 with victims in the last 4 decades, and almost double adding the cases in which there were none.
Legal obstacles
Beyond the political debate, legal experts point out that the Constitution works against any attempt to veto the purchase of weapons by groups defined by their identity.
“The Supreme Court has held that you cannot disarm entire groups of people based on a label; there must be an individualized finding of dangerousness”he recalled Chuck Michelpresident of the California Rifle & Pistol Association.
The tension is twofold: on the one hand, the increase in mass shootings in the US has reactivated pressure to strengthen gun control; On the other hand, the Trump administration has made the erosion of the rights of trans people a hallmark.
The combination of both fronts could lead to a large-scale institutional and judicial clash.
What is clear is that the mere suggestion of a veto has served to unite two traditionally opposed groups: defenders of LGTBQ rights and champions of the Second Amendment.
Both agree that discriminating against a specific group – whatever it may be – would open the door to a general reduction in freedoms.