Mel Gibson will be getting his gun rights back, according to the New York Times. Sources told the publication Friday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will allow the actor and Trump supporter to own guns again, after he lost his right to own firearms after being convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence in 2011.
Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly approved the decision for Gibson and nine other people. The decision comes after in-fighting with the DOJ’s pardon attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer, who was fired by the Trump administration after refusing to restore Gibson’s gun rights last month.
Oyer claimed she had been pressured to include Gibson in a memo to restore his gun rights despite the actor not having undergone reviews other candidates had been subjected to. She told the Times that an official in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office “essentially explained to me that Mel Gibson has a personal relationship with President Trump and that should be sufficient basis for me to make a recommendation and that I would be wise to make the recommendation.”
“Giving guns back to domestic abusers is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly, because there are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms,” Oyer told the Times.
The former pardon attorney also wrote an op-ed for Rolling Stone where she accused Trump’s DOJ of silencing dissent and explained why she believed that Gibson should not have access to arms.
“In 2011, Gibson pleaded guilty to battering his former romantic partner, who reported that he hit her while holding their baby and broke her teeth,” Oyer wrote in March. “Gibson is also known for a 2006 incident in which he unleashed an antisemitic tirade on a police officer who arrested him for drunken driving. Shortly after I informed the deputy attorney general’s staff that I could not recommend rearming this particular bully, I received my termination notice.”
From Rolling Stone US
