President Donald Trump, in the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s killing, claimed that you just can’t take guns to protests.
That’s not necessarily true. Some states might bar the practice, but others have no issue with taking guns with you to engage in political demonstrations. In fact, there are times when it makes perfect sense to do so.
A case in point comes to us from Indianapolis, where protestors brought guns explicitly to protest Trump’s comments.
A group of armed protesters peacefully marched and protested in downtown Indianapolis Saturday to protest what they call an attack on Second Amendment rights from the Trump administration.
A primary focus is the Trump administration’s recent characterization of Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal officers in Minneapolis last month during a protest related to ICE operations in the city.
After Pretti’s death, various leaders of the Trump administration — including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, FBI Director Kash Patel and President Donald Trump — called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” or said he should not have been carrying a gun at a protest.
Those comments caused prominent gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) to push back against the Trump administration, calling for a full investigation into Pretti’s death.
Leaders of Saturday’s protest, the local group Strong Neighbor, say they see these statements from the Trump administration as a direct attack on the rights they have under the Second Amendment.
“That’s why we came armed today,” said Ethan Gick, one of the group’s founding members. “To show them that they are wrong, to show them that Americans stand together, to show them these are our rights, and we will defend them.”
Now, I’m pretty sure that this group isn’t exactly filled with average Townhall readers, but they actually are making a valid point on this one. Guns can be taken to protests, and to show this, they brought guns to a protest explicitly to protest about the ability to bring guns.
Certainly, that’s fair.
I tend to think that most protests where guns are displayed openly are a bad idea, if for no other reason than it distracts from the message. In this case, I feel differently because that is the message in a nutshell. It can’t distract from it. Not in this case.
However, I’ll also point out that Pretti wasn’t just carrying a gun. I have no issue with that. He put his hand on a federal agent, which is a no-no, then failed to cooperate with his arrest, which only made things more tense. Should that have gotten him killed? In and of itself, I don’t think so. However, it bears mentioning that there was a lot more going on than his possessing a firearm at a protest.
Still, Trump and others in his administration shouldn’t have gone down that road. Those comments weren’t helpful in the least and put distance between the administration and gun rights advocates who had been massive supporters of his.
Granted, it’s not like anyone on the gun rights side is rethinking their vote, but it doesn’t exactly make the 2A crowd excited about the midterms, either, and turnout is going to be important. Not a great idea.
But, back on topic, this right here is proof that yes, you can bring guns to protests.
Whether it’s wise to do so when your buddies will be interfering with law enforcement operations, however, is another matter entirely.
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