Why We Should NOT Be Calling To Disarm The Trans Community

In the immediate aftermath of the Nashville tragedy, it is concerning to see a number of people on social media calling to disarm the trans community, most citing mental health concerns as justification. I have also seen several large influencer accounts pose some version of the question, “Should people with mental illness be allowed to own guns?” This is a natural question to ask in today’s society full of both guns and mental illness, and especially after a mentally ill person shot up a school. But calling to disarm the trans community based on mental health concerns endangers the rights of every American, and here’s why.

This situation is very similar to our first amendment right to free speech–if we give the government the tools to take away their rights, whether 1st or 2nd amendment, then the government absolutely can and will use those same tools to take away our rights. As a thought exercise, let’s say we use mental health concerns as justification to confiscate the guns of a group who we believe is dangerous and unstable. There are some really important questions to consider before we make that a reality:

-What would qualify as a mental health concern serious enough to warrant gun confiscation or prevention of purchase?

-What would be required for a person to qualify as having one of those mental health concerns?

-Who gets to determine the qualifications for both of the above?

-Who gets to determine who meets those qualifications?

Presumably, we would turn to “professionals” and “experts.” But if Covid has taught us anything, it’s that entire fields and industries can be captured by partisan activists, like the current medical and psychiatric fields. There are psych “professionals” advocating for pedophilia and the permanent mutilation of children, and there were (and still are) medical and scientific “experts” who advocate for risky, unnecessary, or entirely unscientific things for millions of Americans during COVID just because of an agenda. So would it be these kinds of activist “professionals” and “experts” who would be making these determinations about the mental health of potential gun owners?

If Covid managed to teach us a second thing, it’s that subjective criteria for subjective determinations regarding largely subjective concepts is dangerous for Americans. A prime example of this is the idea of “misinformation.” Who decides what qualifies as “misinformation?” Who decides if something meets those qualifications? Misinformation to one is logical conclusion to another. What was misinformation 6 months ago is accepted truth today. Yes, there are some pretty cut and dry examples of misinformation, like that the sun is made out of sugar-free jello, but it’s never the cut and dry cases that are dangerous. It’s the subjective determinations regarding misinformation that can–and have been–weaponized for political advantage. What’s to say the same wouldn’t happen with a mental health gun confiscation rule?

What’s to keep an activist “professional” from weaponizing their ability to make a subjective determination regarding someone’s mental fitness to own a gun the way activists weaponized subjective determinations about “misinformation” to kill stories or shape narratives? Is it any stretch of the imagination to consider that they might personally decide that what they consider to be “extremism” is a concerning mental health issue? It would be a quick leap for them to decide that a conservative Christian mom of 6 who regularly speaks out at school board meetings against CRT and has a personal preparedness plan in case of a disaster is actually dangerous, unstable, and therefore mentally unfit to own a gun.

Or what about a conservative former military dad who vocally opposes the trans agenda in schools and children’s entertainment? Perhaps the “professional” in charge of deciding one’s mental fitness for gun ownership notices a Trump 2020 bumper sticker still on that person’s car outside their office. To these potentially activist “professionals” making these subjective determinations, people like this are dangerous and unstable, the very justification to hypothetically disarm the trans community. So what’s to keep these activist “professionals” from making the professional recommendation required to justify confiscating conservatives’ guns based on an opinion influenced by their partisan values?

If you give them the tools to strip others of their rights, even if it feels like a momentary win, then those tools can and will be used to strip you of your rights, and you will have no one to blame but yourself for handing them those tools in a moment of agitation.