The Trump administration is currently weighing whether transgender Americans should be banned from buying firearms. This proposal comes after a tragedy in which a trans shooter murdered children at a Minneapolis church. The horror is undeniable. The temptation to act is overwhelming. Yet the cure being floated may be worse than the disease. Far worse. (RELATED: Transgender Mass Murderers: The Drugs and Demons That Drive Them)
Let me start by making an obvious but essential point. The connection between transgender identity and fragile mental health is not up for debate. Rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among transgender individuals are consistently higher than in the general population. Study after study confirms it. One could even argue, as psychiatry did for decades, that transgender identity itself reflects a profound psychological disturbance. That classification only fell out of favor recently, after decades of political pressure. To pretend that the question is settled — that trans identity is simply “natural” and nothing more — is a triumph of ideology over evidence. (RELATED: Acknowledging the Relationship Between Transgender Identity and Violence)
This reality matters. Firearm ownership demands stability, sound judgment, and impulse control. Guns magnify vulnerability, turning a single moment of crisis into something irreversible. For a population already prone to identity struggles and psychological turbulence, the risks are clear. Nearly half of transgender individuals report a suicide attempt, and when firearms are added to the equation, the outcome can be catastrophic.
Does that mean a ban is the answer? Not so fast.
If the government can strip rights from one group on the basis of statistical risk, where does it end?
If the government can strip rights from one group on the basis of statistical risk, where does it end? Veterans with PTSD? Millions on antidepressants or mood stabilizers? Young men prescribed ADHD medication? Once the precedent is set, it rarely stops. The circle of exclusion grows wider with every political convenience.
The hypocrisy is glaring. Conservatives who insist government is too clumsy to run health care or regulate speech suddenly trust it to decide who is ‘fit’ to own a gun. However, the Second Amendment is not a gift for the government to give or take away. It is a constitutional guarantee, created to ensure that even the least popular groups are not left helpless against state power. To declare an entire class of citizens unworthy by default, without individual judgment, tears at the very foundation of that guarantee. And once destroyed, it is almost impossible to restore. (RELATED: The Spiritual Roots of the Second Amendment)
The Minneapolis shooting was monstrous. But collective punishment is not justice. If anything, it’s closer to insanity. Yes, mental health matters in questions of firearm access. That is why federal law already allows judges to remove gun rights from individuals deemed incompetent. The tools exist. They should be used on a case-by-case basis. Liberty is messy, very messy. But that messiness is the cost of freedom. (RELATED: Should the People With All the Power Have All the Guns?)
History shows us exactly what happens when governments embrace broad definitions of ‘unfitness.’ The record is anything but subtle. Eugenics boards in the U.S. sterilized the poor, the disabled, and the mentally ill, insisting they were protecting society while trampling on the dignity of the vulnerable. In Nazi Germany, the same logic escalated into mass murder under the language of racial ‘hygiene.’ Soviet authorities branded dissidents as insane, locking them in psychiatric wards to neutralize political opposition. Mao’s China declared whole categories of people ‘counterrevolutionary’ and stripped them not only of rights but of personhood itself. Once the state gains the power to decide who is ‘defective,’ it never stops with the first group; it always expands.
And what happens if a radical leftist like AOC wins the White House in 2028, eager to settle scores? The precedent will already exist, ready to be weaponized. The same government conservatives trusted to block trans gun ownership could just as easily turn on Christians, MAGA supporters, or anyone branded an ‘extremist.’ That is the curse of politics reduced to revenge.
American politics has ceased to be a contest of ideas and become a cycle of revenge, each side consumed with punishing the other. Elections are no longer about building a future but about settling scores. Conservatives applaud when progressives are silenced, and progressives applaud when conservatives are attacked. Each victory feeds the appetite for payback.
This is the real danger — the erosion of principle in the name of short-term victories. A ban might satisfy anger in the aftermath of a tragedy, but it would fracture the foundations of constitutional liberty. Evil demands a response. But the response must be precise, principled, and proportionate. A blanket ban on one group could backfire in the most brutal fashion imaginable. What begins as punishment for a minority can end as punishment for the majority.
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