After federal agents shot and killed an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight, many Republicans focused on a specific detail: The victim, they said, was armed.
It’s true that Pretti had a holstered gun, though, as Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara explained, he had a legal right to have the firearm and a permit to carry it.
Donald Trump, for example, told The Wall Street Journal, “I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets.” Similarly, FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News, “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”
Around the same time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on ABC News and condemned Pretti for carrying a gun, which came a day after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a press conference, “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign. This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons.”
At this point, we could talk at length about the simple fact that Pretti wasn’t at a protest. We could also spend some time emphasizing the simple fact that while the victim had a gun on him, he wasn’t “brandishing” it — a word Noem used while lying to the public — not to mention that video evidence of the incident appears to show that federal agents took control of the firearm before they shot and killed him.
But as critically important as those elements are, I’m struck by the number of leading Republican officials who are now invested in the idea that an American civilian who’s legally carrying a gun in the vicinity of a protest is necessarily asking for trouble.
Perhaps now would be a good time for a stroll down memory lane. Remember this NBC News report from August 2009?
About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president. … Phoenix police said the gun-toters at Monday’s event, including the man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, didn’t need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested.
At the time, Republican officials made no effort to suggest those carrying firearms to an anti-Obama protest were doing anything wrong.
Similarly, the party had nothing to say when conservative protesters carried weapons at Tea Party events, a protest outside an FBI office when the bureau executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, “Stop the Steal” protests after Trump’s re-election defeat and even at Jan. 6.
How do Republicans explain the double standard? So far, by failing to acknowledge that it even exists.
