This may sound like a pretty odd thing for me of all people to say given my writing on the subject up to this point, but I noticed a swath of right-leaning people support a very dangerous line of thinking when it comes to gun rights recently.
The long and short of it is that various people on the right have been advocating for stripping gun rights from people who declare themselves transgender. I noticed this pick up pretty hardcore after my recent article that revolved around a man who claims he’s transgender, threatening to kill anyone who tried to stop him from going into a women’s restroom. He even advocated for other transgender people to buy and train with guns so they can do the same.
I was surprised to see various people begin saying that any transgender person should automatically lose their 2nd Amendment rights and be disallowed from buying firearms of any kind.
While I can understand the sentiment, I can’t support that line of thinking.
Gender dysphoria is definitely a mental illness but that doesn’t mean that every person who suffers from gender dysphoria is violent. In fact, the transgender people I’ve met personally don’t fit the stereotypical woke crusader who yells, screams, cries, and threatens. Outside of their obvious gender confusion, they act like normal people.
It’s my firmly held belief that any American should have the right to a firearm for the safety and defense of themselves, their loved ones, and their property. Being transgender does not make someone a lesser citizen under the stars and stripes, especially if they’ve committed no crime and shown no signs of wishing to harm anyone.
Don’t get me wrong. Someone who is openly advocating for the death of others, like the man in the video from my previous article, should be investigated and firearm purchases at least put on some sort of hold until they can be wholly evaluated and treated.
But right-leaning people and conservatives should not fall into the trap of thinking about firearms in the same way the left does. It’s not a privilege, it’s a God-given right. Someone’s identity alone does not supersede the will of God.
The reason I’m adamant about defending the gun rights of transgender people, while having to do with the reasons I’ve already laid out above, is that there’s a solid chance that at some point in the near future, you yourself might be labeled as mentally unfit for gun ownership by leftists for various reasons.
For instance, if you hold the stance of limiting government, they may consider you a risk to the state and claim you’re liable to resort to violence upon the passage of certain laws.
If you’re a Christian, then they may claim that your religion calls for extremism against certain people and send someone to your door to collect your firearms. If you’ve been in the political sphere online long enough, you know there are quite a few people out there, including elected officials, who believe that Christianity is a dangerous mental illness.
While these people are out of their minds themselves, these same people are too commonly in positions of power.
Authoritarians will find excuses to force their authority over you with the weakest of arguments, but it’s much harder for them to succeed in doing this if no precedents have been set. Republicans and Conservatives should be careful not to open any doors for authoritarians to walk through, as once they’re in they will utilize the tools you created against you.
The nature of a freedom-minded people is that it’s willing to accept dangerous freedom and reject “safe” oversight. Authoritarians sell the idea of right limitation as “safety” all the time. We should be careful not to become like these people in any way.
Transgender people have a right to firearms just like everyone else. We should only act against them on an individual basis. If one threatens the safety of innocents with firearms, then we act, but only then.
