Justice Department talks about banning transgender gun owners spark fury across political spectrum – Chicago Tribune
Washington – The Ministry of Justice quickly draws the condemnation of firearms groups and LGBTQ defenders after floating that he was planning to prevent transgender people from having firearms – a decision that would almost face immediate constitutional challenges if they were never implemented.
The discussions are involved in the wake of the shooting of a Catholic school in Minneapolis last month that federal officials said they were made by a transgender shooter, according to a person familiar with the issue. The person, who spoke under the cover of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations, warned that the talks were at the first stadiums and that no proposal had been finalized.
Despite this, that the high -level officials of the Trump administration discussed such an idea sparked a fury through the political spectrum. LGBTQ defenders called it wrong and dangerous, as the vast majority of mass shootings in the United States are carried out by men and do not imply transgender people.
“Transgender people represent less than 2% of the global population, but four times more likely to be victims of crimes,” said Glaad in an email. “Everyone deserves to be themselves, to be safe and to be free of violence and discrimination. We all deserve leaders who prioritize security and free maintenance. ”
Since Trump has returned to functions, his administration has targeted transgender people in several ways, in particular by withdrawing them from military service, rubbing certain federal websites from mentions, trying to modify the sex marker on passports, in search of personal information on affirmative patients of doctors and clinics and to search for transgender girls and women of certain sporting competitions.
The Ministry of Justice said in a statement in response to questions about firearm talks that the agency “actively evaluates the options to prevent the scheme of violence that we have found by people with specific mental health challenges and drug addiction disorders”. However, the ministry said: “No specific criminal justice proposal has been advanced at the moment.”
Some conservative figures have merged around the idea of restricting firearms for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria – the discomfort that a person may have because their gender and gender identity does not correspond – by a federal law that prohibits people from having firearms if they are “judged as a defective mind”.
“It is incredibly worrying that it seems to be on the table for them,” said Alejandra Caraballo, activist for the rights of the transgender and instructor of the Harvard Law School. “It is not something that would be incredibly difficult to do logistically or practically, but it would be politically explosive in terms of reaction of groups in the second amendment.”
Defenders of firearms rights – including politically powerful groups such as the National Rifle Association and the owners of America’s firearms – have promised to fight against any proposal which imposes a prohibition of covered firearms targeting a segment of the population.
“The second amendment is not to be discussed,” said NRA in an article on social networks on Friday. “The NRA does not support and does not support policy proposals which implement balailing for firearms which arbitrarily exceed citizens respecting the laws of their rights of the second amendment without regular procedure.”
Another group for defense of firearms, committee of citizens for the right to keep and bear arms, described discussions “to disturb”.
“Prohibiting the whole groups of people from having and using firearms because a sick person has abused a firearm to harm and killing children is as reprehensible as to restrict the rights of all laws that respect crimes,” said Alan Gottlieb, the group’s president in a statement. “That anyone in the Trump administration considers such nonsense is alarming.”
The journalist of Associated Press, Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia, contributed.
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