US President Donald Trump commented that Alex Pretti ‘certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,’ while the National Rifle Association has since addressed the ‘right to bear arms.’
On January 24, an incident occurred in the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that the shooting was an act of self-defense, as they claimed Pretti had pointed a handgun. However, footage from around the incident time shows Pretti holding a mobile phone instead of a gun, and eyewitnesses have disputed the officials’ claim of him brandishing a weapon.
During an interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump expressed his disapproval of Pretti ‘carrying a gun’ and found it ‘unusual’ for Pretti to have ‘a gun that was fully loaded’ with ‘two magazines’.
While the investigation is ongoing, Trump’s remark that ‘[Pretti] certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun’ has faced criticism, given that Pretti was a licensed concealed-weapons holder.
The National Rifle Association responded on January 28 with a statement on X, not directly referring to anyone specific.
The statement read: “The NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right to be.”
The organization Gun Owners of America also issued a statement, expressing their views on the matter.
Luis Valdes, a spokesperson for the group, told Reuters: “You absolutely can walk around with a gun, and you absolutely can peacefully protest while armed.
“It’s an American historical tradition that dates all the way back to the Boston Tea Party.”
This sentiment was echoed by the Minneapolis police chief, who mentioned on Face the Nation: “You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm. And there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota.
“And everything that we see, that we’re aware of, shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions. He is not a convicted felon and he is someone that did have a permit for the handgun to carry it.”
Despite this, certain officials have defended the actions of the agent who shot Pretti and supported Trump’s statement about Pretti not carrying a gun, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel.
At a press conference held shortly after the incident, Noem stated: “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.”
Patel commented on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures: “As Kristi said, you cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines, to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”
In the aftermath of Pretti’s shooting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a reporter, as reported by Reuters: “Any gun owner knows that when you are carrying a weapon, when you are bearing arms, and you are confronted by law enforcement, you are raising the assumption of risk and the risk of force being used against you, and that’s unfortunately what took place on Saturday.”