Despite being an acting special ambassador to Hollywood, Mel Gibson, the actor and Oscar-winning director who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of battering his ex-girlfriend in 2011, still doesn’t have the right to own a gun. Call it a public health measure that a man who threatened to burn down his girlfriend’s home and suggested she be raped doesn’t have access to firearms—and that’s before going into his history of homophobic, antisemitic, se*ist, and racist outbursts to the press, romantic partners, and the police. Nevertheless, high-ranking government officials think someone of Gibson’s character should have access to guns, and former Justice Department attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer believes she lost her job for refusing to reinstate them.
Per The New York Times, two weeks ago, Oyer received a memo reco*mending that nine people who co*mitted crimes have their gun rights restored. She obliged and gave her reco*mendation. Perhaps hoping she wouldn’t notice or read who the request was for, her higher-ups sent a follow-up request to “add Mel Gibson to this memo,” as if that’s just some guy, along with a letter from Gibson’s lawyer to a senior Justice Department official. Oyer told the Times that “giving guns back to domestic abusers” is not something that she “could reco*mend lightly” due to the “real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence.” So, she refused to reco*mend his rights be restored. A few hours later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called her and strongly advised that it would “be wise” to do so because of Gibson’s “personal relationship with President Trump.” The next day, she refused to make the reco*mendation again and was handed her pink slip later that day.
It’s a co*fort in these trying times to know how much effort and concern is going into whether or not Mel Gibson has access to guns. Back in 2016, he explained that he’s moved on with this very likable bit of contrition.
“A lot of time goes by. People are tired of petty grudges about nothing. About somebody having a nervous breakdown (after) double tequilas in the back of a police car,” he told USA Today. “Regrettable. I’ve made my apologies, I’ve done my bit. Moved along. Ten years later. Big deal.”