THE SECOND AMENDMENTThe Second Amendment Is Meaningless If the Government Can Kill You for Exercising It
The law is not supposed to make Americans choose between their lives and their constitutional liberty. The Second Amendment gives people the right to bear arms, and the Fourth Amendment promises to stop the government from killing them for doing so. People should demand better of a government that voices their rights one day before insisting, a couple of days later, that civilians can be killed for exercising them.
What a difference four days can make. Last Tuesday, a top DOJ lawyer argued in the Supreme Court that people have a right to carry guns in public. By Saturday, another DOJ official warned: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.” The government went from championing gun rights to defending ICE agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. Only restraints on the use of force can stop officials from turning the Second Amendment into an excuse to kill civilians.
Facts are still emerging about the Minneapolis shooting of Mr. Pretti by immigration agents, but videos show that they took him to the ground and appear to have removed a pistol from his waistband, then shot him to death. Mr. Pretti had a gun-carry permit.
Government officials rushed to defend the shooting. High-ranking DOJ prosecutor Bill Essayli wrote, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.” FBI Director Kash Patel declared, “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”
Second Amendment advocates responded quickly. The NRA condemned Mr. Essayli for “making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.” Gun Owners of America demanded respect for “Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting.” Former NRA representative Dana Loesch asked Mr. Essayli, “Do you believe that mere legal possession within the vicinity of [an officer]…merits use of force as a response?” Congressman Thomas Massie (R‑KY) wrote, “Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence.”
Activist Jordan Levine observed that the government is wrongly treating “the mere presence of a legal firearm as justification for lethal force.” DOJ knows that this is not consistent with the law. Just four days before agents shot Mr. Pretti, the government argued in the Supreme Court that people generally have the right to carry guns onto private property. “As a practical matter,” the DOJ said, Americans should not be left guessing whether they have Second Amendment rights as they go about their daily business.
Yet the very same government is now apparently saying agents can open fire on armed people who get too close to them.
