Overview

• Justice Department officials say they are evaluating options and have not advanced a specific criminal-justice proposal.
• Reporting indicates internal discussions include using mental-health disqualifiers by treating gender dysphoria as a basis for denying gun ownership, though federal law typically requires a judge’s finding of mental defect or commitment.
• The NRA, Gun Owners of America, the National Association for Gun Rights, Texas Gun Rights, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms publicly opposed a transgender-only prohibition.
• The Second Amendment Foundation’s Kosta Moros called such a policy blatantly unconstitutional, and Cato Institute analyst Patrick Eddington said it would likely fail under the Supreme Court’s Bruen historical-tradition test.
• Research cited in the coverage notes transgender people are not linked to higher rates of violence and are more often victims of violent crime, undercutting a categorical rationale.