The Complexities of Trans Gun Ownership

Last month, following a mass shooting in Minneapolis who, according to the investigators, was carried out by a transgender woman, the Ministry of Justice began to seek means of stripping the Americans of the right to carry weapons. A senior official of the Ministry of Justice told CNN that the objective was “to ensure that sick people suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and sick.” (It should be noted that mental illness alone does not currently disqualify someone the possession of a weapon of any law respectful of laws – although the NRA has not explicitly named trans people. For even the defenders of the most throat firearms, trans persons are often with the delicate exception: about a month before his death, Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist, called on trans.

While cultural wars broke into violent extremism, “gender ideology” – which Trump administration defines as “the idea that there is a wide range of sexes that are disconnected from its sex” – has gone to be considered “awake” to its fight against members of political law as one of the sources of the evils of America, including its violence. Most violence, political or other, are not perpetrated by trans people. In fact, trans people are four times more likely than cisgenres victims violent crime. However, right -wing commentators observed two incidents involving shooters described by the authorities like Trans – a mass shooting at Covenant School, in Nashville, in 2023, and the most recent shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, in Minneapolis – as proof of “trans terrorism”, in the words of Matt Walsh Daily Wals. The Heritage Foundation, the right -wing reflection group responsible for the 2025 project, recently launched an appeal to the FBI to designate “transgender violent extremism inspired by ideology” as a domestic terrorist threat. In the case of the Nashville shooting and the Minneapolis attack, the authorities have shared any evidence indicating that the respective identities of the shooters have led their horrible actions. There were generalized speculations according to which the shooter of the Covenant School, who had been a student there before, was motivated by an anti-religious resentment. But an investigation by the Metro Nashville police department concluded that the shooter, who had appreciated their stay at school, had been motivated by fame.

Almost immediately after Charlie Kirk was killed in Utah three weeks ago, conservative personalities began to speculate that the shooter was either trans or had murdered Kirk because of his anti-trans rhetoric. (Kirk spoke of trans mass shooters just before he was shot.) The Republicans quickly consolidated democrats, anti -fas and trans people in a radical enemy. “I mean, give me a fucking break,” said MP Nancy Mace to Capitol Hill. “This guy speaks of mass -shaped trans violence, transsexual violence – I’m not going to filter myself – and I was killed in the neck like that.” The day after Kirk’s death, the Wall Street Journal reported that the ammunition used in the shooting had been engraved with transgender “ideology” expressions – an affirmation refuted by the Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, and that the Newspaper Later, returned. First, the conservatives said the shooter was trans; Then they said the balls were trans. Now they have seized information that Tyler Robinson, the suspect in detention, had a trans or a roommate. As always, their objectives are a target in motion, with a common enemy.

The question of possession of minority firearms has long been long. In 1857, chief judge Roger Taney asserted in Dred Scott v. Sandford that blacks should not be recognized as citizens because it would give them the right “to keep and carry the arms where they want”. Even after blacks have become a right citizens for the rights of the second amendment, they often had to face the laws on discriminatory firearms limiting their access to firearms. Although his house was bombed in 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr., could not obtain a concealed license. For this reason, firearms would finally become a key element of the Black Power movement. Activists brought firearms for community patrols, self -defense and a demonstration of strength. In May 1967, the Black Panthers entered the California Capitol Building with hunting rifles, pistols and rifles to protest against stricter gun control laws. In recent years, the possession of black firearms and LGBTQ has been increasing, individuals in the two groups citing the marked increase in hatred crimes as a main motivation factor to arm in self -defense.

Many owners of trans firearms with whom I spoke were worried about the administration who potentially limited their access to firearms. “The trans people I know, the owners of firearms and the others see the perspective that the Doj takes the firearms of trans people like a prelude to atrocity,” said Eden Fenn, a young trans woman. It was called “the definition of a owner of reluctant firearms”, describing its property as a precautionary measure against the potential of anti-trans violence. Similarly, Margaret Killjoy, a musician and writer, told me that she had obtained a firearm license after having been doxed by extremists of the far right.

I do not own firearms, but I understand the instinct: after the shooting of the Pulse Night Club, in 2016, I came to mind that I could want to learn to use a firearm for my own protection. It took me several years to overcome my delicate, and I finally went to a range of firearms for the first time last summer. Aside from the employees dominating the reception, I was the only woman there. My instructor told me to pay attention to the ball residues, because I showed a little more skin than men in camouflage and hockey jerseys next to me. Overall, it was a surprisingly trivial outing. I pulled a few laps, then I left.