Trump has cast himself as a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment over the years.
President Donald Trump is facing criticism from some Republicans and Second Amendment advocates over his remarks about guns following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal officer in Minneapolis last weekend.
The president has long cast himself as a backer of the Second Amendment and gun rights, earning the support of groups like the National Rifle Association during all three of his presidential campaigns. Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment via email. Why It Matters Pretti, an ICU nurse, was fatally shot by an immigration agent during an operation in Minneapolis Saturday. The shooting has drawn new scrutiny toward the administration, as just weeks earlier another American citizen, Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. The administration’s remarks about Pretti allegedly possessing a firearm have raised eyebrows among conservatives. The Department of Homeland Security says Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.“ However, videos verified by various news outlets appear to show Pretti holding a phone in his right hand, with nothing in his left hand, before he was shot. On Tuesday, Trump drew criticism from Second Amendment advocates and Republicans after saying, “You can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns. It's a very unfortunate thing.” This marks the latest rift between Trump and his own supporters. What To Know Trump has expressed support for some restrictions on firearms as far back as 2013, when he posted to X, then Twitter, that he is a “Big Second Amendment believer,” but said “background checks to weed out the sicko’s are fine.” In 2015, in his book Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America, he wrote that bringing “more government regulation into the situation has accomplished very little,” according to excerpts earlier reported by ABC News. President Donald Trump speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026. “The main ‘benefit’ has been to make it difficult for a law-abiding American to buy a gun. As study after study has proven, few criminals are stupid enough to try to pass a background check or have their names in any kind of system,” he wrote. During Trump's 2016 run for the White House, he criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s positions on gun control. According to a PBS News report, Trump said on the campaign trail, “I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm, right? Right? I think they should disarm immediately. What do you think? She doesn't want guns. Take their—let's see what happens to her. Take their guns away.” During a debate, he said, “We have to take the guns away from these people that have them and they are bad people that shouldn't have them.” During his first term in the White House, Trump generally supported pro-Second Amendment policies. In February 2017, he rolled back an Obama-era regulation that made it more difficult for individuals with mental illnesses to purchase firearms. However, he continued to at times voice support for background checks. In 2019, following mass shootings, Trump wrote to X, then Twitter, that he would support background check legislation. “We cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain. Likewise for those so seriously wounded. We can never forget them, and those many who came before them. Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!” he wrote in a series of posts. Trump has also pointed to mental health issues as the reason for mass shootings in the United States. “Our country has been chock-full of guns for centuries, and there was no talk of massacres of schoolchildren until around the year 2000,“ Trump said during a 2023 event for the NRA. “That's when it really started, they started talking about it. This is not a gun problem. This is a mental health problem. This is a social problem. This is a cultural problem. This is a spiritual problem.“ In 2024, he told NRA members that he would reverse regulations implemented by former President Joe Biden, according to a Politico report. “Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated on my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day,” he said at the NRA’s Presidential Forum. White House Says Trump ‘Absolutely’ Supports Second Amendment Amid Backlash During a press conference on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted Trump’s unwavering support for the Second Amendment. “The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely. There has been no greater supporter or defender of the right to bear arms than President Donald J. Trump,” she said. “While Americans have a constitutional right to bear Arms, Americans do not have a constitutional right to impede lawful immigration enforcement operations.” She said that “any gun owner knows” that when an individual is confronted by law enforcement while carrying a weapon they are “raising the assumption of risk.” Gun rights groups have been critical over Trump’s remarks. “Peaceful protests while armed isn’t radical—it’s American. The First and Second Amendments protect those rights, and they always have. GOA will hold any administration accountable,” Gun Owners of American wrote in a post to X. What People Are Saying The NRA wrote on X on Tuesday: “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.” Senator Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican, wrote on X: “I’d also like to remind federal leaders that words matter. Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, and the mere possession of a firearm does not represent a threat justifying lethal force. Given heavy-handed rhetoric and recent events, we have seen an erosion of trust in federal immigration officials growing among too many Americans.” Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, wrote on X: “Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government.” What Happens Next Trump has sent his border czar Tom Homan to oversee immigration operations in Minnesota as the investigation into Pretti’s death continues. The violence in the city has ignited pushback from Congress, which remains divided over ICE funding, raising the possibility of a government shutdown at the end of January.
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