The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering blocking those identifying as transgender from buying firearms after a trans-identifying male opened fire on children at a Catholic school in Minnesota on Aug. 27, multiple outlets reported Thursday.
Robin Westman, a man identifying as a woman, killed two children while they attended Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, wounded 21 others and fatally shot himself. The massacre — along with other recent attacks carried out by trans-identifying individuals — has heightened concerns about the connection between transgenderism, mental illness and violence.
The goal of the potential ban is “to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell,” a DOJ official told CNN.
Court records show that the alleged gunman’s mother, who worked at the church, applied to change her son’s name from Robert Paul to Robin M. while he was still a minor, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Westman blamed his transgenderism, weed and disapproval from his mother for his mental illness, according to his writing translated by the New York Post.
“Gender and weed fucked up my head,” he reportedly wrote. “I wish I never tried experimenting with either. Don’t let your kids smoke weed or change gender until they are like seventeen.”
The Aug. 27 shooting follows a similar 2023 attack in Nashville carried out by Audrey Hale — a female who identified as male — who shot and killed three children and three faculty members at the Covenant School.
A DOJ spokesperson said the department is weighing its options but did not provide further specifics.
“The DOJ is actively evaluating options to prevent the pattern of violence we have seen from individuals with specific mental health challenges and substance abuse disorders,” the spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “No specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.”
Meanwhile, some Democrats have condemned discussions of Westman’s transgender identity. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey denounced what he called the “hate being directed at our trans community” following the shooting, claiming that “anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity.”
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has moved to dismantle many Biden-era policies related to transgenderism, including by designating gender dysphoria on its list of medical conditions that disqualify people from military service.
This post has been updated to include a response from the DOJ.
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