President Trump comments on Alex Preti shooting incident
President Donald Trump said people cannot “walk in with guns” after the shooting death of ICU nurse Alex Preti.
- President Donald Trump’s stance on the Second Amendment has come under scrutiny following the shooting death of Alex Pretty by a Border Patrol agent.
- President Trump said Preti should not have brought a gun to the protest, a comment that drew criticism from gun rights groups.
- Despite his history of campaigning on gun rights, Trump’s comments about the Preti incident appear to be a departure from his party’s typical positions.
President Donald Trump’s stance on gun rights and the Second Amendment has come into sharp focus following the shooting death of Alex Pretty in Minnesota.
On January 24, Preti was tackled to the ground and shot to death by Border Patrol agents while participating in an immigration protest in Minneapolis. Federal authorities have defended the shooting of Preti, an ICU nurse who was treating veterans, saying he brought guns to protests to “kill law enforcement.” Witness footage showed Preti holding a cellphone, not a gun, before she was wrestled to the ground.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Preti was “exercising his First Amendment right to document law enforcement activities and also exercising his Second Amendment right to be lawfully armed in public places in our city.”
President Trump himself has criticized Pretty for bringing guns to protests, a departure from the Second Amendment rights his party has long supported. Regarding the shooting, he said:
Did Trump say “you can’t have a gun”?
Yes, but that was part of a longer answer.
On January 27, President Trump was asked by reporters whether he believed Preti was acting as an assassin.
“No,” he said. “That being said, you can’t have a gun. You can’t walk in with a gun. That’s just not possible. This is a very unfortunate incident.”
What does Donald Trump say about the Second Amendment?
President Trump and the Republican Party have long supported gun rights. In particular, they publicly supported Kyle Rittenhouse, who went to protests in 2020 with an AR-15 rifle and shot three people, killing two others, saying he was protecting businesses. He claimed self-defense and was innocent of all charges.
The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund, a powerful gun rights group, endorsed Trump in each of the three elections. In a statement, the group said that in 2024, Trump will be a “strong champion who has always fought for the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
Trump frequently expressed support for gun rights during his 2024 presidential campaign.
“I’ve been proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president ever in the White House, and I think that’s recognized,” Trump said at the 2023 NRA Conference in Indianapolis. “And in 2024, with your support, I will once again be your loyal friend and fearless advocate as the 47th President of the United States.” Trump also frequently said on the campaign trail that former Vice President Kamala Harris was trying to reach for a gun. (That’s not true. Harris was advertising herself as a gun owner.)
Even in his first term as president, Trump’s support for the Second Amendment has come under scrutiny as he has signaled support for gun control legislation, reversed stronger background checks and banned bump stocks, according to ABC News. However, the NRA continued to support President Trump in 2020.
What did President Trump say about Alex Preti?
The video suggests that Preti had a gun on his hip, but was tackled down before the agent was aware of the gun’s presence, and was disarmed before the agent could fire.
President Trump told the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, “I don’t like any kind of shooting. I don’t like it… but I don’t like it when somebody goes to a protest and they have a very powerful, fully loaded gun, and they have two magazines loaded. That’s not good either.”
President Trump also said he wanted to see what the outcome of the federal investigation into Preti’s death would be before passing a verdict, calling the situation in Minneapolis “de-escalating.”
Preeti’s comments that she shouldn’t have been carrying a gun angered gun rights groups.
“The NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have the right to keep and bear arms wherever there is a legal right to do so,” the NRA said on January 27.
“The president is simply wrong,” Dudley Brown, president of the National Gun Rights Association, said in a statement. “While we agree that law enforcement should not be involved, you absolutely have the right to carry tools for self-defense when protesting lawfully. In fact, those are the very places where it is most important to exercise that right.”
Rittenhouse also posted to X, “You can take it anywhere. It’s your right.”
Contributors: Joey Garrison, BrieAnna J. Frank, america today
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact KCrowley@usatodayco.com. follow her X (Twitter), blue sky and TikTok.
