Following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a Minnesota ICU nurse, by federal agents, the Trump administration has been criticized for seemingly contradicting its previous stance on the Second Amendment. Officials are now asserting exceptions to gun rights based on the circumstances of Pretti's encounter with law enforcement.
In the days since Alex Pretti was shot to death by federal agents in Minnesota , Republican administration officials have been deploying torturous logic to defend the agents responsible and villainize the 37-year-old ICU nurse.
Pretti had a gun when he encountered law enforcement on Saturday—which he was legally permitted to have in accordance with Minnesota law—and suddenly the Trump administration has decided the Second Amendment has exceptions. Seeming to lay some blame on Pretti for his killing, President Donald Trump told the press on Tuesday, “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t. You can’t walk in with guns. You can’t do that.” This had already been a theme from his administration. Shortly after the incident, FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News that Americans cannot bring a gun to just “any sort of protest that you want,” while Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino went on CNN to say that Pretti’s Second Amendment rights “don’t count” because, in Bovino’s view, he was obstructing law enforcement officers. It’s worth noting that these positions stand in stark contrast to previous ones by some of these figures, including Patel, whosomeone at a protest a “victory for the Second Amendment.” Indeed, it did not take long for the reckoning, with far-right figures, the National Rifle Association, and scores of other gun rights groups publicly calling out the Trump administration for this apparent reversal.“I’ve encountered countless police while I’ve been armed, and never been shot. The presence of a firearm, by itself, is not an indicator of a criminal intent or a threat to law enforcement,”podcast. Tim Pool, a virulent ring-wing conspiracy theorist, noted that video footage appears to show Pretti being disarmed and then shot at by federal agents. “I don’t see Trump winning this one,” Pool The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus was also quick to call out Patel’s assertion about Pretti’s decision to bring a gun with him on the day he was fatally shot,that “there is no prohibition on a permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines at a protest or rally in Minnesota.”And when California U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli repeated the administration’s line that approaching law enforcement with a gun gives agents legal justification to shoot you, the most prominent gun rights figures on X decided enough was enough. “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens,” the NRA retorted, to Essayli. Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, alsoby questioning the Department of Justice’s intentions. “I guess the Justice Department is back to targeting gun owners as domestic terrorists. You can want illegals & criminals off the streets and not want to see CCW permit holders get executed for ‘approaching’ law enforcement.”In what appears to be an attempt to calm the blowback to the situation on the ground in Minneapolis, the Trump administration announced Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino would be leaving Minnesota and returning to his old post in El Centro, California. However, among America’s conservative movement, the conversation over gun rights in the wake of Pretti’s killing is far from settled. To understand why, it’s worth considering the recent history of gun politics in the United States on the right. According to Saul Cornell, Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University, the Republican Party is not aligned on how it views the Second Amendment and in fact is facing three separate schools of thought that we’re seeing collide in real time.As Cornell told Slate, there’s the libertarian wing that holds a sweeping view of gun rights, so much so it characterizes the right to defend oneself “as basic a human right as there is.” Then there’s the Christian nationalist view, which is also quite sweeping but believes only white, “pure blood” Americans deserve to bear arms. Finally, there is the old law-and-order bucket, which includes many Bush andCornell offers that the Trump administration is seeking to revive the old law-and-order school of thought now that it’s convenient, and will. Pool, for his part, is already boasting again of his support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying of federal law enforcement, “I’m not licking the boot. It’s my boot. I voted for it. I’m the one stomping.” Rob Doar, general counsel for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, conceded that the group was disappointed in the Trump administration’s response to Pretti’s death and it has created skepticism among those who support Trump. However, these members are “still overall pleased with the general state of things,” with Doar noting to Slate that the administration haswithin the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and on the whole been friendly to the 2nd Amendment.In Cornell’s view, all the major figures in the conservative movement who may disagree with Trump now are more than likely to eventually fall back in line. “It’s hard to imagine those people are going to embrace telling people to bring their guns to ICE protests, right?” Cornell said. “Will this be the last we hear from the NRA? Or will they really harp on this and make it an issue? My suspicion is no, because it doesn’t help the Republicans” in future elections, Cornell noted.If they’re willing to play “originalist jujitsu,” as Cornell characterized it, the Democrats still have a clear opening to use Republicans’ historical support for gun rights against them. California Gov. Gavin Newsom attempted to do so after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested Pretti did not have a Second Amendment right because he was carrying a gun. “The Trump administration does not believe in the 2nd Amendment. Good to know,” NewsomFormer congressman and 2024 presidential candidate Dean Phillips struck a more earnest tone. “For years I quietly mocked 2A defenders who argued arms were necessary to defend American rights against a tyrannical government,” Phillips said, in aPerhaps the most powerful approach is to simply point to the facts. Speaking to CNN about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in the hours following Pretti’s death, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “How rich is it that she is saying showing up to the scene of a protest with a legally owned weapon should be grounds for a person’s death, execution at the hands of the state, by the same party and administration that praises
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