The National Rifle association has become a new ally of the trans community after advocating for their second amendment rights. Recently, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice proposed possibly banning trans people from buying and owning guns under the assumption that transgender should be categorized as mental illness. According to PinkNews, Trump made this claim following the Annunciation Catholic School mass shooting on August 27 in which the perpetrator was believed to be a transgender individual.
However, in response to reports about possibly banning trans people from having guns, a National Rifle Association (NRA) spokesperson took to X. PinkNews cited their post, claiming that “The Second Amendment isn’t up for debate. (We support the) rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase, possess, and use firearms.” They followed this up with another statement, that “(they don’t) support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”
This comes as a shock considering that, according to CNN, the NRA has been almost exclusively been associated with and donating to conservatives since 2010. Business-wise, it is interesting that the NRA chose to align themselves with “the enemy” of sorts. Infamously, most conservatives have have been outwardly anti-trans, especially since Trump’s administration—with Trump continuing to propose and enact transphobic laws.
It is somewhat hopeful that despite the organization’s dedication to the Republican party, they were able to put aside their “alliance” to double down on their message. Regardless of the person, the Second Amendment still stands.
I take this newfound “ally” with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, the NRA still provides substantial funding to Republican lawmakers. The very same lawmakers who are removing trans people’s rights, and banning life-saving care.
We can only hope that this thinking—the bare minimum of seeing trans people as human beings, deserving of equal treatment under law—encourages conservatives to rethink their animosity towards trans people. But we will have to see following the recent shooting of a conservative icon.
