Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker
Topics: Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump, Gun Crime, Immigration, Minnesota
William Morgan
Topics: Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump, Gun Crime, Immigration, Minnesota
People outraged by the killing of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers on Saturday have unearthed an old Charlie Kirk tweet that disproves claims from the Trump administration.
Much of the reaction from federal appointees, including from DHS secretary Kristi Noem and CBP chief Greg Bovino, in the wake of 37-year-old Pretti's point-blank shooting has involved branding him as an armed 'domestic terrorist' who wanted to 'do maximum damage' to their agents.
Video evidence from the incident shows Pretti using his camera to record the ongoing ICE and CBP operations in the city before he was fatally shot 10 times while helping another protester. However, some Republicans have claimed that the nurse's firearm, a pistol that was holstered, justified his killing.
"Peaceful protesters don’t have 9mm weapons with two extra magazines," New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew argued in the aftermath.
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But people outraged by attempts to blame Pretti for his own shooting have found an old Charlie Kirk tweet that explains clearly why they're wrong.
"The 2nd amendment is not for hunting, it is not for self protection," the old Twitter post from conservative firebrand, who was shot dead in September, begins.
Charlie Kirk's 2018 post continues: "It is there to ensure that free people can defend themselves if god forbid government became tyrannical and turned against its citizens."
This is a common interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, which affords US citizens the right to 'a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'
People sharing the old social media post aimed to point out the hypocrisy between the position held by federal officials and those of Charlie Kirk and others in their movement.
This claim was even made by FBI Director Kash Patel, who said: "You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It is that simple."
These positions appear antithetical to much of the Republican Party's rhetoric on guns in recent decades, including in the comparable example of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found to be exercising his constitutional rights when he turned up to a protest with an openly carried assault rifle and shot two men dead.
President Trump and his wider political movement backed Rittenhouse's right to bear arms in the wake of this 2020 shooting incident, for which Rittenhouse was found not guilty.
Local gun advocacy groups have rejected the justification for Pretti's killing, with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus saying in a statement: "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."
Increasingly vocal Trump critic, Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, echoed this sentiment, telling reporters that 'carrying a firearm is not a death sentence,' in the wake of the ICU nurse's shooting.
He added: "It's a constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don't understand this, you have no business in law enforcement or government."