PROFILES IN COURAGE 2025: Elizabeth G. Oyer.
When I started this series, there were few stories. Now there are so many that it’s becoming a challenge to choose which ones to write about. I welcome the challenge.
Note: A version of this post was also published at Claims and Issues Blog.
ELIZABETH OYER was a Pardon Attorney working for the Department of Justice. She was called out of a meeting there recently to be told that she was fired.
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Oyer had researched and then written a memorandum listing people whose gun rights should be restored. They did not present a danger to society if their gun rights were restored. Her "superior" told her to add Mel Gibson, the controversial actor to the list. Her superior did not tell her a single thing related to justice or good conduct or the merits of Mel Gibson.
Elizabeth Oyer already knew of course that Gibson was denied a gun permit because Gibson pleaded no contest to a domestic violence charge. He was convicted and sentenced to counseling, community service, and a fine plus probation. Her superior informed Oyer of something she did not necessarily know.
Her superior told Oyer that Gibson and the Occupant have a "personal relationship."
That is the only reason Oyer was given to add Gibson to the list of people she would recommend to carry a gun now. Oyer refused because she could not say what it was her job to say in such circumstances, that the individual in question no longer posed a danger to other people.
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Elizabeth Oyer knew that she faced personal consequences from her decision and she went ahead anyway because she thought that her decision was the right thing to do regardless. She knew that she would be fired but she persisted and in her case, it was a courageous thing to do.
ELIZABETH OYER is a Profile in Courage 2025.
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Congress based the federal law under which Mr. Gibson’s guns were confiscated on factual findings that domestic abusers have high recidivism rates and their victims are five times more likely to die when an abuser has access to guns. Just last year, the conservative United States Supreme Court, which has dramatically expanded the right to bear arms in other contexts, rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the law in an 8-1 ruling based on these findings. Only in Trump’s “right wing woke” world are laws protecting the victims of domestic abuse against gun violence condemned. Ms. Oyer's willingness to speak truth to power regardless of the consequences makes her a worthy recipient of a Profile in Courage award.