Major Gun-Rights Groups Oppose the Trump Administration's Idea To Ban Trans People From Owning Guns
The NRA says it won't support "any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process."
The Trump administration's reported proposal to ban transgender people from owning guns has drawn condemnation from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and every other notable gun-rights group in the country.
The Daily Wire first reported Thursday, based on anonymous Justice Department sources, that senior officials in the department are considering using their rulemaking authority to declare that trans people are mentally ill, stripping them of their Second Amendment rights. Other major news outlets rereported the story.
The Justice Department hasn't issued any such rule yet, or attached a name to any of the statements leaking out to the press, so this all amounts to more of a trial balloon. But as Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote, the idea is "legally loony." There is no statutory authority for such a categorical decree. Even if Congress did pass such a law, it would be unconstitutional based on current Supreme Court precedent and prevailing circuit court opinions.
If the Trump administration was hoping to get a pass from gun-rights groups over these small details, it will be disappointed. Categorical bans—issued by executive fiat no less—have been a red line for pro-Second Amendment groups and lawmakers for decades.
"The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase, possess and use firearms," the organization posted Friday on X. "The NRA does not, and will not, support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process."
The Second Amendment isn't up for debate. pic.twitter.com/AQwouV4VDd
— NRA (@NRA) September 5, 2025
Stephen Gutowski, an independent journalist covering gun rights and the gun industry, reported that the NRA wasn't alone: "Every major gun-rights group has now spoken against the idea of the DOJ trying to strip trans people of their gun rights en masse," he posted on X Friday.
Gutowski's tally included Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, the National Association for Gun Rights, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
"Disarming trans individuals based purely on their self-identification flies in the face of the Constitution and the current administration's purported support for the Second Amendment," the Second Amendment Foundation said in a statement to Newsweek. "Beyond the bad policy and constitutional infirmities of such 'considerations' the Department of Justice has no authority to unilaterally identify groups of people that it would like to strip of their constitutional rights. SAF sincerely hopes that the reports of such considerations by the DOJ are inaccurate, as the policy reportedly being contemplated is worthy of the strongest possible condemnation and legal action."
Second Amendment groups often remind gun-control advocates that, historically, things don't tend to go well for minority groups after they're disarmed by the government, so it's good to see them presenting a united front against just such a proposal.
If the Trump Administration has any ability to read the room, it will quietly forget about its idea to illegally strip a group of Americans of their constitutional right to bear arms.
