The ATF has proposed a new federal rule which would effectively ban trans people who have performed any degree of legal transition from owning firearms.
If the rule goes forward, the Trump administration’s definition of "biological sex" would be required on all firearms purchases, with penalty for perjury for not complying. For trans people who have had their current identification corrected to the proper sex/gender marker, this mismatch would cause them to have to either commit perjury to get a gun, or not get a gun.
Given that perjury is a felony, and convicted felons lose most otherwise-guaranteed rights, including the right to vote and right to own guns, this proposed rule would bar trans people from accessing their right to self defense, and criminalize those who try to get armed anyways.
The comment period on this rule is still open until Aug. 4. Anyone can go comment and make some noise opposing this restriction of second amendment rights for trans people in the United States.
All comments become part of the public record, and even if the rule goes through, having an administrative docket full of opposition can help justify a later reversal.
As of writing, there are over 600 comments on the proposed rule, 592 of which are visible. One commenter wrote, “This change is myopic and based on scientific fallacy. The scientific community already recognizes that gender identity and, yes, even biological sex, is more complicated than simply male and female and this is clearly driven by religious motives…”
Another stated,
“There is no need for the ATF, DOJ or any federal Department to collect any information on the sex, gender, gender identity, or orientation of any individual exercising their second amendment rights. The change to this Rule and form 4473 concerning the “biological sex” of the applicant is unconstitutional. Similarly, such change ignores the biological diversity of the population at large.”
In opposition, some commenters do support the rule as proposed. However, those comments are revealing.
One such commenter said he supported this proposal because it would align the forms with “executive branch policy and established biological classifications promotes consistency across federal agencies and reduces confusion in the background check process.”
In other words, this commenter is in favor of unilateral presidential power to reduce people’s rights as long as such use of power “reduces confusion”.
A few of the anti-trans comments The Needle reviewed were single-sentence responses such as “I support this rule”. Such comments provide neither evidence in favor of their case, nor are they worthy of pushback.
Another commenter, in favor of trans people’s rights, said,
“This legislation creates intentional barriers to marginalized communities accessing firearms. We live in a country where all citizens have the right to [bear] arms. Not a right if they submit the right information, not a right if they are legally a boy, girl, or anything in between.
This ruling would limit access to constitutionally protected rights based on subjective cultural contexts and I believe to truly honor "shall not be infringed" means to deny this change to accessing firearms.”
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Another commenter indicated both preference for Republicans and opposition to this rule, on the basis that it infringes on Constitutional Rights.
“This is both an infringement on the First Amendment right to free speech and expression, and a blatant infringement on the Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.
Sex and gender should not be a contributing factor in the approval or denial of a person being able to exercise their Constitutionally protected 2nd Amendment rights. This is a blatant attempt at gun control to prevent a specific class of citizen from exercising their rights.
If we allow/deny rights based on arbitrary things like state-enforced gender, this will lead to approval/denial of rights for other arbitrary criteria, such as race, religion, political affiliation, etc. This is a measure I would expect from Democrat gun grabbers, not the purported "2nd Amendment defenders" of the Republican party.”
The Needle spoke to RebelKitty, a trans woman who has built an online community of trans and queer people who believe in community self-defense and gun rights, about her thoughts on this ATF proposal. She had the following to say:
“We've learned countless times through our country's brief history that the 'inalienable' rights we hold so dear only mean anything when applied equally under the law. To subvert these rights simply out of spite for trans people will ultimately lead to them having no meaning at all.”
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The rule isn’t set in stone yet. It could still be dropped by the ATF, and the public comment period is a critical way to create pressure to stop it.
