Robin Westman can be seen holding a firearm at Frontiersman Sports. Westman carried out a mass shooting which has led to the DOJ mulling the limiting of trans people from owning guns. (Kory Krause)
"The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase and use firearms," the statement reads.
"NRA does not, and will not, support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process."
As well as the NRA, Gun Owners of America (GOA) issued a clear, uncompromising stance on the issue.
"GOA opposes any and all gun bans. Full stop," the GOA wrote on X.
In another post, the group quoted senior vice president Erich Pratt as saying: "Gun Owners of America does not compromise with our support for the right of all People to keep and bear arms."
The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), another major gun lobby group, has not formally weighed in on the issue, but its president, Dudley Brown, said he opposes the idea. He argued on X that labeling people "mentally defective" to strip them of gun rights would be a due-process violation.
The DOJ officials’ conversations are in an early stage and no concrete steps have been taken, multiple sources told Fox News. One source pointed to a "pattern" of shootings carried out by transgender people, including Westman’s attack.
Audrey "Aiden" Hale, who identified as transgender, killed six at The Covenant School in Nashville in 2023. Alec McKinney, a transgender teen, was one of two shooters at STEM School in Colorado, where one person was killed, and eight others were wounded.
Another source said the DOJ's discussions about banning transgender people from buying or owning guns have involved the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the executive branch.
Colt M4 Carbine and AR-15 style rifles are displayed during the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center, in Houston, Texas on May 28, 2022. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
People with mental health conditions are typically not banned from purchasing guns under current laws, which the Supreme Court reaffirmed as recently as 2024 in United States v. Rahimi. But in some instances, such as a court deeming someone mentally incompetent, that information is supposed to crop up during a background check and block a customer from obtaining a gun license.
LGBTQ advocates called the idea of a ban misguided and dangerous, arguing that the vast majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are carried out by men and do not involve transgender people.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Transgender people are less than 2 percent of the overall population, yet four times as likely to be victims of crime," GLAAD said. "Everyone deserves to be themselves, be safe, and be free from violence and discrimination. We all deserve leaders who prioritize keeping all of us safe and free."
Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration has removed transgender people from military service, scrubbed some federal websites of mentions of them and is trying to bar changing the sex marker on passports. The administration has also been vehemently opposed to allowing biological males to compete in female sports and curtailed access to so-called gender-affirming care.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/americas-largest-gun-lobby-speaks-out-trump-admin-mulls-possible-trans-firearms-ban