When it comes to Second Amendment issues, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is still the 800-pound gorilla of the pro-gun rights movement. Other groups take a harder line, but whenever an anti-gun politician starts working his or her blowhole about the "gun lobby," it's always the NRA they bring up as their arch-demon. Full disclosure: My wife and I have been Life Members of the NRA since the mid-90s.
The NRA has pretty consistently opposed the stripping of anyone's Second Amendment rights, any individual or any group, without due process. So when the Trump administration floated a trial balloon about removing Second Amendment rights from "transgender" individuals, the NRA was quick to release a statement opposing any such move.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has sounded off on reports that the Trump administration is mulling a way of limiting transgender people’s ability to purchase firearms.
The gun lobby group, the largest in the U.S. with 5 million members according to its website, released a statement Friday reinforcing its commitment that all law-abiding Americans have a right to bear arms.
It comes as Department of Justice officials have had several internal meetings about placing restrictions on trans people in the wake of Annunciation School shooter Robin Westman, who identified as trans, killing two people and injuring 18 others late last month. Westman’s firearms were purchased legally, according to the Associated Press.
And, we might note, Westman had never been adjudicated to be a "mental defective," nor committed to a mental institution. Not that Westman wasn't a wacko, as subsequent events proved, but the law is the law. The NRA is very clear on their stance: Due process must be observed.
"The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase and use firearms," the statement reads.
"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."
Another group, the Gun Owners of America (GOA), a group known for taking a harder line against gun control laws and gun bans, issued a very similar statement:
As well as the NRA, Gun Owners of America (GOA) issued a clear, uncompromising stance on the issue.
"GOA opposes any and all gun bans. Full stop," the GOA wrote on X.
That's as it should be.
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This is as it should be. Due process is key. Rights do not belong to groups; they belong to individuals. Rights cannot be defined as applying to groups; there are no "transgender rights," or "immigrant rights," or "black rights." There are only human rights, rights with which the government is forbidden from interfering with without due process. Those rights do not belong to groups. They certainly do not belong to the government. They belong to the people.
It's easy to look for a quick fix after a tragedy like the Annunciation School shooting. And yes, there are clearly mental health issues involved here. Transgender people have committed an alarming number of these attacks lately, and it's a matter of concern. But we must not stoop to the level of yanking the constitutional rights of an identifiable group or people because of what other members of that group have done.
The National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America are correct. There should be no talk of stripping a constitutional right away from a group. There should be no talk of stripping anyone of a constitutional right without due process.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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