Justice Department Officials Discussed Banning Transgender Gun Owners

Gun rights advocates are pushing back after Justice Department officials discussed ways to block transgender individuals from buying guns

Justice Department officials have discussed ways to block transgender individuals from buying guns in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Minneapolis, according to people briefed on the talks.

The Justice Department says ‘no specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.’

Justice Department discussions included targeting trans people by leveraging laws that restrict mentally ill people from owning guns, the people said. Police said the attack on the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis that killed two children and injured others was carried out by a 23-year-old who identified as a transgender woman.

The DOJ talks set off a firestorm among gun rights advocates who widely oppose restrictions on ownership rights. At least one influential gun rights advocate reached out to the White House on Thursday to raise concerns that restricting gun rights for groups like transgender people would be unconstitutional, a person familiar with the matter said. The advocate was assured that the Justice Department wouldn’t be moving forward with any such proposals, the person said.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the department is “actively evaluating options to prevent the pattern of violence we have seen from individuals with specific mental-health challenges and substance abuse disorders,” but added that “no specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gun rights groups are largely conservative and have been ardent supporters of President Trump. The National Rifle Association spent tens of millions to back his presidential campaigns. But the discussions within the Justice Department about targeting specific groups for gun control touched a nerve.

“History proves any new rules the government invents today will be abused against ill-favored communities including conservatives and law-abiding gun owners tomorrow,” said Taylor Rhodes, a spokesman for the National Association for Gun Rights, an advocacy group. “Banning weapons from one class of people is just insanity.”

The Justice Department discussions come as the Trump administration pushes to roll back other transgender rights. The president has moved to bar transgender people from serving in the military and withhold money from states that allow transgender women to play on female athletic teams.

Shooting groups for gay and transgender people have proliferated in recent years as hate crimes have risen. Erin Palette, founder of Operation Blazing Sword, a group that trains LGBTQ firearms owners, said the proposals would be an attack on everyone’s gun rights.

“Queer people are the canaries in the gun rights coal mine, and those alleged conservatives who are pushing to deprive us of our Second Amendment rights without due process are sawing off the branch upon which they sit,” Palette said.

Gun rights groups have taken up the causes of apparent political opponents before, such as when they called for gun charges to be dropped last year against Hunter Biden.

Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, a firearms advocacy group, said the law isn’t on the side of blocking specific groups of people from owning guns.

“The Supreme Court has held that you can’t just disarm groups of people based on a label; there has to be some individualized finding of dangerousness,” Michel said.

Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com and C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com