One of the more interesting phenomena surrounding the death of Alex Pretti is the newly discovered respect for the Second Amendment among liberals.
Pretti was a holder of a concealed carry permit here in Minnesota, which means he had the right to carry at the protest. Perhaps. Minnesota law is actually ambiguous about that, and it appears he was not carrying either identification or his permit at the time, but those are details.
His right to carry, in any case, ended when he interfered with law enforcement officers and resisted arrest, but again, for the purposes of this essay, that, too, is a detail. Although I will note that all those idiots making the absurd claim that even if he was illegally carrying that is not a capital offense miss the point: he was not shot as “punishment” for committing a crime, but because an officer (rightly or wrongly) believed he was an imminent threat.
Law enforcement cannot execute you as a punishment; they can shoot you if they reasonably believe you present a threat to themselves or others. Pretti may, in fact, not have been a threat, but if the officer reasonably believed he was, the shooting was both a good one and regrettable. All I can say about that is that assaulting law enforcement officers while armed is extremely stupid.
The left doesn’t see it that way at all, and all of a sudden, carrying weapons while impeding law enforcement is the best thing on earth, because Orange Man Bad.
And more and more of them are openly suggesting that federal law enforcement officers should be threatened with guns or even shot.
Illegitimate Kris Mayes is calling on people to kill law enforcement officers
A LEGITIMATE Attorney General would prosecute someone making threats to law enforcement
Kris belongs in jail NOT the Attorney General’s office pic.twitter.com/BqpiB4I1j6
— Nico Delgado 🇺🇸 (@NicoDelgadoAZ) January 23, 2026
Attorney General Kris Mayes of Arizona openly mused, quite wrongly with regard to the law, that people who are being confronted by federal agents should consider threatening them with weapons.
The Attorney General. Of a state. It was a remarkably obtuse comment, both because the suggestion itself is outrageous, and because it is a misstatement of the law by the state’s lawyer. It got some attention nationally, although far less than it should have, because of course the media loves to see the outrage meter pegged when it comes to Trump and especially immigration.
Democrat Arizona AG Kris Mayes top police liaison tenders her resignation after blow back from her insane video, where she basically tells Arizona residents they can shoot agents under “stand your ground law” pic.twitter.com/Yo5IIa1abV
— Imperfect Believer (@Imperfectblever) January 26, 2026
Within the state, which has a deep gun culture, the reaction has been less muted. She has faced resignations in her office and a blowback from law enforcement that could be described as epic.
It can’t get any worse for Kris Mayes. The Arizona Sheriffs’ Association has just issued a powerful open letter condemning AG Kris Mayes’ dangerous rhetoric on Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” laws potentially justifying force against law enforcement.
They explicitly state her… pic.twitter.com/etE5ffOHQX
— Warren Petersen (@votewarren) January 27, 2026
It can’t get any worse for Kris Mayes. The Arizona Sheriffs’ Association has just issued a powerful open letter condemning AG Kris Mayes’ dangerous rhetoric on Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” laws potentially justifying force against law enforcement.
They explicitly state her comments show “a lack of understanding of state law – or much worse, a willful and reckless interpretation of the law.” Arizona law is clear: deadly force against known or reasonably identifiable officers performing duties is unlawful and expressly exempted from self-defense statutes (A.R.S. §§ 13-404, 13-405, 13-409, etc.).
This comes on top of condemnations from the APA, PPSLA, FOP and other law enforcement leaders. Every major layer of Arizona law enforcement has now unified in rejecting her statements as reckless, endangering officers, and fundamentally misguided.
Kris, the unified voice of those who risk their lives daily is unmistakable: retract these statements, clarify unequivocally that shooting at law enforcement is never justified, and tender your resignation. Arizona deserves an AG who stands with—not against—our officers and the rule of law.
Understandably so. It’s not like local law enforcement doesn’t face the same kind of attacks, both physically and politically, as federal law enforcement does. Liberals may not like to recall that they fully backed “defund the police” and defended riots that left officers wounded, but I can assure you that law enforcement officers do. One of the ironies of the body cam movement is the fact that many of the accusations of police brutality have been proven false by the video evidence those cameras provide. You rarely hear about that, because Pravda loves the Narrative™ that the police are a fascist force, but many an officer has been exonerated by video evidence.
But it’s not just one radical politician musing about shooting federal officers. It has now crept into the media, which has hardly covered itself in glory now, or at any time in recent memory. Their reporting is as sharp and coherent as a typical Joe Biden speech.
CNN’s Kasie Hunt suggests people should be pointing guns at the Trump administration because it has become “tyrannical” citing “what we saw on the streets” of Minneapolis:
“I want to bring back a tweet from Charlie Kirk in 2018. He says this, ‘The Second Amendment is not for… pic.twitter.com/qZq6Z2qnTu— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 26, 2026
CNN’s Kasie Hunt suggests people should be pointing guns at the Trump administration because it has become “tyrannical” citing “what we saw on the streets” of Minneapolis:
“I want to bring back a tweet from Charlie Kirk in 2018. He says this, ‘The Second Amendment is not for hunting. It’s not for self protection. It is there to ensure that free people can defend themselves if, God forbid, government became tyrannical and turned against its citizens.’ And I think a lot of people are pointing to this because, I mean, what what we saw in the streets.”
Suddenly shooting federal agents is thinkable, which fits with the Civil War narratives that are now being floated. We have Gettysburg analogies, which are amazing, if unintentionally revealing (guess which side is trying to secede?), talk of being at “war” with the federal government, Lieutenant Governors, city officials, state legislators, and political consultants to governors participating in attacks on federal agents or coordinating what amounts to an insurgency.
When political reporters are suggesting that law enforcement officers should be shot, we have entered a new phase of this now warm Civil War.
Less than 5 months ago Nicholas Decker wrote an essay calling for Republicans to be shot. pic.twitter.com/1AeTcyJ4A8
— Chris Brunet (@chrisbrunet) September 10, 2025
Your average liberal is bombarded by messaging that completely distorts what is happening here. Minnesota is not, in fact, deportation central. It’s just that most states and localities cooperate with federal law enforcement and protect the operations, not just for the safety of law enforcement, but for the public. Even the illegal aliens being arrested are much safer than here because the violent and chaotic environment caused, intentionally, makes the situation very dangerous.
As Beege wrote earlier, even the number of deportations is not wildly up compared to the last months of the Biden administration, when they were trying to give Kamala Harris political cover. The big thing that has changed is that, starting on January 21, 2025, the violence began because a coordinated operation was put in place.
No major media outlet has covered the Signal chat revelations, which reveal the extent of the planning and coordination and the tactics used to create escalation. Because that doesn’t fit The Narrative™.
DHS Sec. Kristi Noem: “An agent’s finger was BIT off.”
These people are incredibly dangerous and out of control.
Attacking officers, biting fingers off, storming churches, trashing businesses.
There is serious demonic energy taking over Minnesota.
pic.twitter.com/pxehnzDRw6— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 24, 2026
But if the rhetoric reflects another escalation, soon enough, federal agents will be killed. The level of violence is already quite high here in Minnesota, but soon enough, it could get much, much worse.
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