It's funny how often the radical anti-gunners who infest social media and the mainstream media alike think they have a bead on just what we believe and should get a say in how we dictate our stands.
Right now, a lot of people think that if we're serious about opposing tyranny, for example, we should be shooting ICE and CBP agents in Minneapolis. They think they get a say in deciding where our line in the sand is, a say in what we're willing to die for.
On the more tame end of the spectrum, we've got the Washington Post, which posted a piece this morning titled, "This is a prove-it moment for gun rights activists."
Gun rights activists have argued for years that carrying a gun in public is a sacrosanct right protected by the Second Amendment.
But now, President Donald Trump’s administration, one that received considerable support from gun rights organizations, appears to be questioning that right by arguing that federal agents were justified in shooting Alex Pretti, the man killed in Minneapolis this weekend, because he was carrying a firearm.
“I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said Saturday.
“He brought a gun. He brought a gun,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday. “I’ve been to a protest. Guess what? I didn’t bring a gun, I brought a billboard.”
“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple. You don’t have a right to break the law,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Sunday.
This rhetoric is wholly at odds with what Republicans, including Noem, have said about gun ownership.
“The Second Amendment is about deterrence. It is about ensuring the government respects the rights and liberty of citizens,” Noem said during a speech to the National Rifle Association in 2023. “Why do the liberals and Joe Biden want our guns? Because it will make it easier for them to infringe on all our other rights.”
This disconnect has turned the shooting of Pretti into a watershed moment for the gun rights activists, the Second Amendment movement, and politicians who have benefited from these groups’ support. While Pretti did have a firearm on him as he recorded Border Patrol officers Saturday, videos show that the 37-year-old ICU nurse did not pull out his gun and was disarmed before being shot.
Now, plenty of people have taken Patel, Bessent, and Noem to task for what they've said. That includes pretty much all of the gun rights organizations out there. That includes most of the gun rights activists out there.
They might see Pretti's death as the result of his own actions. They might feel it was fully justifiable, it was "lawful but awful," or a bad shoot that should land someone in prison. They run the entire spectrum, but while there have been some notable exceptions, most agree that you do, in fact, have a right to bear arms, even if you're protesting for a cause they don't agree with.
That's not what's up for debate among those of us on the gun rights side of things, and for the Washington Post, of all places, to think they get to tell us it's on us to prove our commitment to our principles is asinine.
This is the same publication that ran a piece with photographs of dead children from Uvalde in an effort to upset people enough to demand gun control. This is the same publication that has reprinted every anti-gun claim as an absolute fact for generations now. This is the same Washington Post that has never once offered a serious rebuttal to the anti-gun "research" they parrot, despite the glaring flaws that anyone with eyes can see.
They don't get to tell us we have to prove a damn thing. We've proven it, both in past years and with this latest situation.
If anyone needs to prove a damn thing, it's the Washington Post. They need to prove they're a publication worth taking seriously, something they've failed to do for years upon years.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment.
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