The Right Suddenly Goes Anti-Gun

Ian Haworth
Tue, 27 Jan 2026 15:23:02 -0800
Opinion

Minneapolis has, yet again, become the epicenter of the left's bizarre notion that the enforcement of federal immigration policy can simply be overridden if enough incensed communists take to the streets in protest. But following the tragic shooting of Alex Pretti, it's not just the left who have completely lost the plot.

This has nothing to do with the undeniable fact that the enforcement of immigration laws and border control by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is absolutely uncontroversial, nor the individual cases in which such enforcement meets varying forms of violent resistance and results in tragic instances of further violence. This doesn't even have anything to do with the case of Alex Pretti, given that we should all wait for an investigation to be completed before rushing to our predetermined conclusion based on a handful of what I think are AI-generated images and our gut feeling.

No, the particular concern here for Republicans is the bizarre anti-Second Amendment rhetoric of the Trump administration as they scramble to handle the killing of Alex Pretti as horrendously as possible by immediately smearing his actions and intentions — something an investigation is supposed to do — while pointing to his legal possession of a firearm as the problem.
Updated: Tue Jan 27, 2026

Minneapolis has, yet again, become the epicenter of the left's bizarre notion that the enforcement of federal immigration policy can simply be overridden if enough incensed communists take to the streets in protest. But following the tragic shooting of Alex Pretti, it's not just the left who have completely lost the plot.

This has nothing to do with the undeniable fact that the enforcement of immigration laws and border control by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is absolutely uncontroversial, nor the individual cases in which such enforcement meets varying forms of violent resistance and results in tragic instances of further violence. This doesn't even have anything to do with the case of Alex Pretti, given that we should all wait for an investigation to be completed before rushing to our predetermined conclusion based on a handful of what I think are AI-generated images and our gut feeling.

No, the particular concern here for Republicans is the bizarre anti-Second Amendment rhetoric of the Trump administration as they scramble to handle the killing of Alex Pretti as horrendously as possible by immediately smearing his actions and intentions — something an investigation is supposed to do — while pointing to his legal possession of a firearm as the problem.

"At 9:05 AM CT, as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, seen here," the Department of Homeland Security announced on social media, just a few hours after the incident, soon adding that "The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID — this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."

"The suspect also had two loaded magazines and no accessible ID," Border Control Chief Greg Bovino said. "This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."

"I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign," argued the gun-toting, family-dog-shooting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while her boss, President Donald Trump, declared that "You can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns."

I'm sorry, what?

Last time I checked, this was the United States of America, where we have that little thing called the Second Amendment that Republicans — which supposedly includes Donald Trump and his walking Botox overdose of a DHS secretary — care about more than almost anything else.

Last time I checked, when conservatives — the most notable example being Kyle Rittenhouse — attend protests while armed, these same Republicans would defend their unquestionable right under the Second Amendment to do so.

And from what we can tell, Pretti was carrying a legally owned firearm, and carrying single 9 mm handgun with additional loaded magazines is hardly indicative of a would-be domestic terrorist, unless there are tens of millions of would-be domestic terrorists marching the streets on any given day in the United States. That's not to say that Pretti wasn't looking to kill federal officers, or that he didn't brandish his weapon or use his weapon in a threatening manner that caused an agent to fear for their life. But that's what an investigation is for!

Yes, the left is actively trying to inflame tensions — including Tim Walz, who is comparing any enforcement of federal law to Nazi Germany — but that doesn't excuse the right from skipping a thorough investigation that first uncovers the facts while turning its back on the fundamental right to keep and bear arms as part of their reflexive desire to counter such a propaganda war.

Be the adults in the room. That's all we're asking. And in the meantime, yes, we can have guns. This is America.