The more I look at this incident, the more I worry about it. It's too perfect. I hate saying "perfect" because a man has died, but here we are. So first, let me get my surface thoughts out of the way...
He showed up to a protest armed. Cool. So do I... Any event, protest, whatever in which I'm allowed to carry my handgun, exercise my 2A rights, AND utilize my CCW permit? I'm doing so. Hell, to risk being overly honest, I'll still carry to some events that I'm “technically” not allowed to... And the reason? Protection, and not just personal either... All it ever takes is a single spark or lone gunman or agent provocateur for that event to get completely out of hand and turn into either a riot or a tragedy. Am I looking for a fight? Absolutely not. Am I making sure that if one does occur, I'm prepared? Absolutely.
He showed up to a protest armed with multiple magazines. Cool. So do I... When I carry, I carry 3 spares. Why? Because I carry a single stack handgun. I'm relatively thin and I prefer to wear properly fitting clothes. This means that most double stack handguns “print” very easily on me. Is it ideal? Fuck no, but when each magazine only holds 7 rounds? Work arounds are required....
He tried to put himself between a female protestor and an agent that had already put his hands on her, shoving her to the ground. This didn't occur during an escalating conflict in the middle of a riot, the agent actively closed the distance between himself and a woman holding a cup of coffee, and shoved on her. Pretti immediately gets hit in the face that oh-so-tasty orange spray while trying to help defend the woman from the agent while other agents walk up. Pretti's hands were up in a defensive posture until he tried to put his cellphone away... Cool. I like to think I would have done the exact same thing. Look, just being a federal agent does not give someone cart-blanche to act in the manner that agent did. He overstepped, Pretti got in the way, and honestly? It really does look like Pretti was executed for it.
This man was exercising his 2A rights in a perfectly legal, peaceful, and safe manner. A couple of years back, I was temporarily detained (arrested but no charges went any further than the magistrate) for “brandishing,” i.e., I had pulled my Kimber in an attempt to de-escalate a situation in which I believed my safety and the safety of others to be at risk. I got arrested just for pulling my sidearm. It happens. No big deal. This man died and he never pulled his own...
Now...
Here's the greater problem I see with all of this. Liberals been on a warpath for the last few weeks about this idea they created in which the “2A Right” is only okay with the 2A when it's the Right that is armed... I've not actually seen that rhetoric from anyone other government talking heads and politicians, and yet it is all over my social media. What I have seen, is a lot of my more Right leaning friends and family defending these agents' actions. I can't, with good conscience, agree with them, and so we've been arguing about it, sometimes quite loudly.
Alex Pretti will be raised up as a martyr. Either by Liberals to prop up their stance that ICE is just jackbooted thugs for a tyrannical government, or by those that are actually paying attention and willing to call out their own for fucking up. I may not have agreed with his stance on immigration or possibly anything other than his 2A rights... But I do not believe Pretti was in the wrong at all for what transpired.
P.S. The only fault I can really find with Pretti at all is in his choice of carry gun... When ranges are banning P320's because they're not safe, is that really the one you should be carrying? Which does beg the question... Was that actually the firearm he *was* carrying?
He showed up to a protest armed. Cool. So do I... Any event, protest, whatever in which I'm allowed to carry my handgun, exercise my 2A rights, AND utilize my CCW permit? I'm doing so. Hell, to risk being overly honest, I'll still carry to some events that I'm “technically” not allowed to... And the reason? Protection, and not just personal either... All it ever takes is a single spark or lone gunman or agent provocateur for that event to get completely out of hand and turn into either a riot or a tragedy. Am I looking for a fight? Absolutely not. Am I making sure that if one does occur, I'm prepared? Absolutely.
He showed up to a protest armed with multiple magazines. Cool. So do I... When I carry, I carry 3 spares. Why? Because I carry a single stack handgun. I'm relatively thin and I prefer to wear properly fitting clothes. This means that most double stack handguns “print” very easily on me. Is it ideal? Fuck no, but when each magazine only holds 7 rounds? Work arounds are required....
He tried to put himself between a female protestor and an agent that had already put his hands on her, shoving her to the ground. This didn't occur during an escalating conflict in the middle of a riot, the agent actively closed the distance between himself and a woman holding a cup of coffee, and shoved on her. Pretti immediately gets hit in the face that oh-so-tasty orange spray while trying to help defend the woman from the agent while other agents walk up. Pretti's hands were up in a defensive posture until he tried to put his cellphone away... Cool. I like to think I would have done the exact same thing. Look, just being a federal agent does not give someone cart-blanche to act in the manner that agent did. He overstepped, Pretti got in the way, and honestly? It really does look like Pretti was executed for it.
This man was exercising his 2A rights in a perfectly legal, peaceful, and safe manner. A couple of years back, I was temporarily detained (arrested but no charges went any further than the magistrate) for “brandishing,” i.e., I had pulled my Kimber in an attempt to de-escalate a situation in which I believed my safety and the safety of others to be at risk. I got arrested just for pulling my sidearm. It happens. No big deal. This man died and he never pulled his own...
Now...
Here's the greater problem I see with all of this. Liberals been on a warpath for the last few weeks about this idea they created in which the “2A Right” is only okay with the 2A when it's the Right that is armed... I've not actually seen that rhetoric from anyone other government talking heads and politicians, and yet it is all over my social media. What I have seen, is a lot of my more Right leaning friends and family defending these agents' actions. I can't, with good conscience, agree with them, and so we've been arguing about it, sometimes quite loudly.
Alex Pretti will be raised up as a martyr. Either by Liberals to prop up their stance that ICE is just jackbooted thugs for a tyrannical government, or by those that are actually paying attention and willing to call out their own for fucking up. I may not have agreed with his stance on immigration or possibly anything other than his 2A rights... But I do not believe Pretti was in the wrong at all for what transpired.
P.S. The only fault I can really find with Pretti at all is in his choice of carry gun... When ranges are banning P320's because they're not safe, is that really the one you should be carrying? Which does beg the question... Was that actually the firearm he *was* carrying?
"Fanaticism holds the hand of Narcissism"