Transgender mass shooters bring trans gun groups into focus: ‘Armed queers don’t get bashed’
A Eugene Weekly cover story featured transgender gun owners. @MrAndyNgo/X
Two high-profile shootings involving transgender individuals in less than a week have drawn attention and raised concerns about violence in the community.
On February 10, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who identifies as transgender, killed his mother and stepbrother before opening fire at a school in British Columbia, Canada, leaving six more dead.
Then on Monday, Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito, carried out a shooting at a Pawtucket, Rhode Island, ice rink where his son was playing hockey. The attack left two family members dead before Dorgan died by suicide. Reports indicate that prior to the attack, Dorgan posted online messages expressing an interest in guns and warning others not to provoke him.
These incidents have coincided with an increase in online communities where some transgender people share images of firearms and discuss self-defense. One Reddit community, r/transguns, has around 11,000 weekly visitors and features users posting pictures of themselves with guns, often decorated in colors representing the transgender flag. Posts emphasize personal protection and self-defense.
A video from the group “Pink Pistols Pittsburgh” shows a transgender person practicing at a firing range and describing a desire to feel safer. The founders explained that, after the November election, some in the LGBTQ+ community felt the need to take personal safety into their own hands. “Armed queers don’t get bashed,” they said in the video, describing their efforts to deter potential hate crimes.
Despite the recent incidents, transgender individuals make up a very small proportion of mass shooters overall. Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows that, between January 1, 2013, and September 15, 2025, five of 5,748 mass shootings were committed by transgender individuals, representing less than 0.1% of all such incidents. The total could be slightly higher, but gender identities of some perpetrators remain unconfirmed.
High-profile incidents have drawn attention, including August 2025 in Minneapolis, when Robin Westman killed two children and injured 18 at a church, and March 2023 in Nashville, where Aiden Hale killed six at a Christian school. Authorities have found no connection between these perpetrators and groups such as r/transguns or Pink Pistols.
Media coverage has also highlighted transgender people openly advocating for self-defense. A 2023 op-ed in the University of Utah student newspaper argued that transgender individuals should consider arming themselves amid rising threats. Similarly, a 2025 Eugene Weekly cover story showed a trans person holding an AR-15, highlighting concerns about personal safety under President Trump’s administration.
Some public figures have used these incidents to make broader claims about violence in the transgender community, but experts note that overall rates remain extremely low.
There has also been interest among some transgender groups in organized firearms training, with groups such as Stone Wall Underground promoting self-defense education and community preparedness.
Following the Minneapolis shooting in 2025, the Trump administration reportedly considered limiting gun ownership among transgender individuals. The NRA opposed such proposals, stating that sweeping gun restrictions should not arbitrarily remove rights from law-abiding citizens.
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