Trump and the Second Amendment

When Alex Pretti was killed, I never thought it would devolve into a debate about the Second Amendment where Republicans sound like Democrats and vice versa.

President Trump himself has made some questionable comments regarding Pretti and his decision to carry a firearm with extra magazines to that particular protest/interference effort.

I don’t agree with him at least as he phrased it

Lee Williams wrote at The Gun Writer about how Trump’s support for the Second Amendment is being questioned.

President Donald L. Trump was very clear Tuesday when addressing a gaggle of reporters who were asking questions about ongoing problems in Minneapolis, including the shooting death of Alex Pretti, an armed protester.

“You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns,” President Trump said, which caused a reporter to question him about the Second Amendment.

“You can’t walk in with guns,” Trump said in response.

Those two comments caused a stir among the country’s Second Amendment supporters, because the president was very clear in his response, and it wasn’t off-the-cuff. He had plenty of time to consider his answer.

Legally, of course, the president was wrong. Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal agents, had a valid Minnesota concealed-carry permit, even though he did not have any ID. He was absolutely entitled to carry his concealed 9mm Sig P320 during the protest, if that’s what he wanted to do.

So, somehow President Trump got bad information, which he repeated several times. However, rather than focusing on what the president said, we should focus on who actually caused Pretti’s death. That, friends, is definitely not President Trump. A large portion of responsibility for Alex Pretti’s death can be laid squarely at the feet of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

Williams makes a valid point in that last paragraph, of course, and you should go and read the rest of his take, because again, valid points.

However, I’m also going to bring up something else about President Trump for a moment, and that’s his history with the Second Amendment.

Trump was undoubtedly the better option when it came to guns back in 2024. Kamala Harris would have pushed through every anti-gun thing she could, and there’s no way we’d have seen the tax stamp for suppressors and short-barreled long guns disappear under her administration. We came out ahead by a massive margin.

Yet Trump also gave us the bump stock ban following the Route 91 shooting in Las Vegas. He was willing to sign legislation that banned them, a bill that would have also likely inhibited people from installing aftermarket triggers on their guns, even. 

The thing about Trump is that he’s an unscripted guy, much of the time. His speaking style doesn’t sound like someone with prepared remarks. It sounds like a gun talking as he normally talks, with maybe some bullet points on note cards at best. Because of that off-the-cuff style, he sometimes seems to say stuff that is based more on emotion than logic.

Many of us are upset at his comments, but they’re just comments.

Saying he couldn’t have a gun in that place at that time isn’t accurate…in Minnesota. It’s the law in other places, for better or worse, and that means it’s not incomprehensible that he might be wrong about what was legal there.

But nothing in those comments, as bothersome as they are, is the equivalent of supporting gun control legislation, and that’s important. While Trump was willing to do so in his first term, this time he’s not saying any such thing. No Republican is introducing legislation to ban guns at protests, at least as of right now. There’s little chance of that happening, and even less chance of it passing.

When it comes to what happened and what was said, there’s a lot of dialogue flying back and forth, but so far as it’s all talk, we lose relatively little. Yes, the anti-gunners will use this to their advantage down the line. Then again, them losing their minds over the suggestion that someone couldn’t lawfully carry can and will be used against them, too, so it’ll even out.

Concern over Trump’s comments makes sense.

But no one should lose any sleep over it, either. He’s still the clear choice, even if we had to go through the 2024 election all over again.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are still our best hope to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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