When the Government Kills Citizens for Exercising Gun Rights

A legally armed American citizen was shot dead by federal agents. He never even drew his weapon.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse. According to the Minneapolis Police Department, he possessed a legal carry permit and was armed during his fatal encounter with federal Border Patrol agents. But existing videos suggest he never reached for his weapon. Instead, he appears to have been pepper-sprayed while trying to help a woman who had been knocked to the ground, then shot in the back after agents had already removed his firearm.

A Constitutional Crisis in Real Time

This killing occurred during the Trump administration's massive immigration enforcement operations. ICE has launched "Operation Metro Surge" and "Operation Catch of the Day" across Minnesota and Maine, ostensibly to protect Americans from foreign-born gang members. Yet in less than a month, federal agents have killed two American citizens—both white Americans, the demographic Trump and Stephen Miller tacitly signal they care about most.

The author of this account, a writer and gun enthusiast living in Maine, made extraordinary preparations before ICE's anticipated arrival in his state. He cut his hair and beard extra short, and for the first time in his life, tried to "look a little whiter." More tellingly, he stopped carrying the Glock 19 he typically conceals under his shirt—despite Maine's permissive concealed-carry laws.

"What happens if I'm harassed by an ICE agent and they feel the pistol beneath my sweatshirt?" he wondered. "What if poorly trained, trigger-happy officers panic and shoot me, even if I'm doing nothing illegal?"

Pretti's death proved these fears justified.

When Rights Become Targets

The response from gun rights organizations has been swift and unified across ideological lines. Minnesota's Gun Owners Caucus declared: "Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms—including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights. These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed."

Gun Owners of America similarly observed that "the Second Amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon."

Yet the Trump administration, which positions itself as the ultimate defender of gun rights, struck a different tone. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: "Thank God for the patriots of @ICEgov. You are SAVING the country." This, after a federal agent emptied his magazine into the back of an apparently law-abiding, gun-owning American who had been safely disarmed.

The Paradox of Armed Freedom

The author brings a unique perspective to this crisis. Raised in American gun culture—his father was a combat veteran turned state police officer, his first job was at a gun club—he burns through over 1,000 rounds monthly at the range and admits to being a "gun nut" by some standards.

He's spent years arguing with liberal friends about the Second Amendment, defending what he sees as its core purpose: preventing government tyranny. "Because tyrannical governments can be either liberal or conservative," he writes, "the Constitution protects those on the left and right equally."

This principle now faces its ultimate test. The message being sent is stark: *"If you exercise your constitutionally protected right to bear arms, masked federal agents can murder you in cold blood, simply because an American citizen exercising their Second Amendment rights scares them."*

Beyond Politics, Into Survival

What makes this crisis particularly profound is its bipartisan nature. Pretti's political views remain unclear, but his presence on that Minneapolis street embodied what the Second Amendment represents: the affirmation that Americans are free people who will not be cowed by masked federal agents.

As gun enthusiasts have long argued, freedom means little without the means to preserve it. The author puts it starkly: "Without the Second Amendment, the Constitution is a bit of parchment. With the Second Amendment, the Constitution is a demand."

Yet when citizens actually exercise this fundamental right, they apparently become targets for the very government that claims to protect it.