President Donald Trump’s Justice Department could take a huge step to address gun violence that goes against decades of precedent set by previous Republican administrations.
In the wake of the latest school shooting in Minneapolis last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi is considering banning transgender people from purchasing firearms, according to conservative outlet the Daily Wire.
‘Individuals within the DOJ are reviewing ways to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell,’ a DOJ source claimed.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Justice Department for comment on this report.
It comes after a person born male but identifying as female carried out a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 27. Two children were killed – Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10.
The shooter, Robin M. Westman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
It was revealed the day of the shooting that Westman was born Robert, but changed their name because they were transitioning to female.
Two years prior on March 27, 2023, another transgender killer targeted a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Shooter Audrey Elizabeth was a 28-year-old biological woman who identified as male and went by Aiden on some social media profiles. Six people – three children and three adults – were killed in that shooting.
Now, it appears the DOJ is considering preventing people with the mental illness of gender dysphoria from being able to purchase a gun as a way to crackdown on the rise in gun violence.
A DOJ spokesman said there are a ‘range of options’ on the table to address gun violence.
‘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,’ they added.
Gender dysphoria is the mental illness often associated with transgenderism.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) ‘gender dysphoria is defined as a condition characterized by a marked and persistent incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and their assigned sex, resulting in significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.’
Asked about the differentiation between identifying someone with ‘gender dysphoria’ and someone who is ‘trans-identifying,’ a DOJ source told the Daily Wire they’re ‘not playing semantics with words like dysphoria.’
‘We’re talking about trannies, and we don’t think they should have guns,’ they added.
The move to prohibit someone from buying a gun based on a medical diagnosis goes against many Second Amendment advocates.
There have been pushes from Republicans to protect Americans’ rights to own a firearm and intense scrutiny over any attempts to limit that.
But Bondi’s Justice Department appears to think this action could be a compromise between the political left and right.
‘Democrats have called for common sense gun laws for a long time,’ the DOJ source told the Daily Wire. ‘This seems pretty common sense to me.’