Second Amendment

Robby Soave | 1.25.2026 2:17 PM

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, outside a restaurant on Saturday. The victim, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, was licensed to carry a firearm, and he had one with him. The available footage does not show every detail of what happened, but Pretti was holding a cell phone rather than his gun when the officers initiated contact and began wrestling him to the ground.

Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have already declared the killing completely justified, claiming that Pretti had intended to murder law enforcement agents. There is no evidence of this—none whatsoever—which makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the administration is prepared to brazenly lie about what happened.

Other Republican officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and FBI Director Kash Patel, are taking the position that merely bringing a gun to a protest is a violation of the law or an indication of murderous intent. This is deeply wrong, and it is in conflict with the First and Second Amendments—two fundamental rights that Republicans typically profess to care about.

As with the killing of Renee Good two weeks ago, the legal threshold at which lethal force can be justified is whether the officer who killed Pretti reasonably feared for his own safety. Only........

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