Analysis reveals Trump’s 'dangerous' reasons for restoring 'remorseless' Mel Gibson’s gun rights

13 March

Pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer was fired from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after refusing to restore actor Mel Gibson's gun rights, which were taken away because of a domestic violence case. Under a federal law passed in 1996 under President Bill Clinton, people convicted of domestic violence can be stripped of their gun rights — and in a 2011 domestic violence case, Gibson pleaded "no contest" to accusations that he assaulted his girlfriend.

President Donald Trump picked Gibson as his ambassador to Hollywood. And Oyer is speaking out about being fired from DOJ, telling the New York Times, "This is dangerous. This isn't political — this is a safety issue."

Oyer also discussed her firing with CNN's Kaitlin Collins and said that "within hours" of refusing to restore Gibson's gun rights, she was "escorted out of my office by DOJ security officers."

In an article published on March 13, Salon's Amanda Marcotte describes Gibson as a "poster boy" for "red flag" laws that "allow the state to remove guns from people in a mental health crisis or who are an active threat to the community" — emphasizing that Oyer was "right" when she refused to restore the actor's gun rights.

"A history of domestic violence is a strong predictor of a man's overall tendencies towards violence — a fact so well-known that even the far-right Supreme Court balked last year at ending the law prohibiting domestic abusers from having guns," Marcotte explains. "Eighty-two percent of Americans agree that wife-beaters should not have guns, including even 81 percent of Republicans. Gibson's story illustrates why this is such a big deal. While Gibson downplayed the attack against his then-girlfriend as a 'slap,' prosecutors said he punched her hard enough to bust her teeth."

Marcotte continues, "But what's telling is how remorseless Gibson has been. During the attack itself, he screamed that she 'deserved it' while calling her names, outraged she refused to 'smile, and blow me.' In official court documents, he continued to insist his violence was merely 'an attempt to bring her back to reality.'"

Trump's aggressive defense of Gibson, Marcotte argues, is consistent with his "long history of rewarding men accused of violence against women with praise, cushy jobs and legal interference to protect them."

"The battle over Gibson's gun rights underscores how this is not, as MAGA likes to pretend, a matter of feminist joykills complaining about a few off-color jokes," Marcotte explains. "Gibson's legal right to tell jokes, no matter how tasteless, is not in dispute. The issue is letting him have weapons designed to kill people with ease. The research on this is crystal clear: Domestic abuse is far more likely to turn deadly when a gun is involved."

Marcotte continues, "But not only does Trump not care, it seems very much like the threat of violence is part of the allure. Trump's toxic brand of 'masculinity' valorizes violence and abuse, especially against people who are smaller or less powerful. That's why his administration appears to have intervened in the prosecution of Andrew Tate, a misogynist 'influencer' who was charged in Britain and Romania for rape and sex trafficking.

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