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The killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has sparked a thorny conversation among gun rights groups and Trump administration officials about the second amendment and the right to carry concealed firearms at protests and demonstrations. Among the questions is which cases the movement rallies behind, and behind which it doesn’t.
In the hours and days after Pretti’s killing, dozens of local national and local gun rights groups lambasted federal officials like Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official, who baselessly claimed that Pretti’s carrying of a handgun proved that he planned to harm and kill border patrol agents. Prominent gun rights organizations, including Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), called for an independent investigation into the shooting and defended Pretti’s right to carry a gun.
The reaction from the NRA, in particular, was markedly different from the one it adopted nearly a decade ago when it was called on to speak on the killing of another legal gun owner by law enforcement.
In July 2016, 32-year-old Philando Castile, a Black man, was shot and killed in front of his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter by a police officer in St Anthony, Minnesota, a suburb of St Paul. Castile was pulled over and told the officer that he had a gun – for which he had a permit – in the car. Seconds after the disclosure, the officer shot Castile five times, killing him.
At the time, the NRA was the nation’s most prominent and influential gun rights group and was working to defend and expand policies that would allow people to carry their firearms with and without permits. Two days after the shooting, the organization released a statement calling for an investigation, but it didn’t use Castile’s name and didn’t comment the following year when the officer who shot Castile was acquitted of manslaughter.
“Gun rights advocates said nothing even though he was licensed to carry,” Glenda Hatchett, who represented Castile’s family in a civil lawsuit against the city of St Anthony, said. “[Castile] said to the officer – very clearly – that he had a weapon. He said it voluntarily. Before he could even get his ID, [the officer] steps back and unloads his pistol in him. What the hell?”
The NRA’s initial silence and subsequently limp response drew ire from within and outside their ranks, with masses of commentators and gun owners alike calling out what they saw as hypocrisy from the group.
“You’re on the forefront on this issue but then someone dies and you say nothing? That strikes me as hypocritical,” Hatchett added. “If you are advocating and you’re saying that people have the right to carry then why were you silent?”
She argues that race played a major factor in the NRA’s lukewarm response.
“Race is a factor, let’s call it like it is. It’s been a factor in this country,” she added. “If Philando had been white in the suburbs of Minneapolis, would they have said something?”
Amid the NRA’s silence, other organizations did speak out. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and Second Amendment Foundation both released statements mentioning Castile by name and describing his death as “troubling” and “a tragedy”.
“For Castile, who was killed 4 miles from my house, we made a statement because it was the right thing to do. There was a core moral issue,” said Bryan Strawser, the chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.
“Why wasn’t there a huge outrage from more than just the local advocates? What about the NRA and all these advocates who talk about the right to carry? If there was ever a case that they could have come out and talk about, it is the one where this man has the right to carry this gun but he was killed on the side of the road,” Hatchett said.
When she started seeing the stories about Pretti’s death and the videos depicting his final moment, Hatchett remembers feeling a sense of “horror” and thinking of Castile as well as George Floyd, whose death was also captured on camera and replayed countless times.
“It brought back a flood of difficult memories for me. I immediately started having flashbacks to Philando and George Floyd. The world watched this man being killed – not by a gun – but being killed while we all watched,” she said.
Hatchett said she hoped both legislation and training could stop interactions between gun owners like Castile and Pretti and law enforcement from leading to death and injury. “If we can’t learn from these situations then what is the hope for the state and country?” she said.
The NRA did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on their response to Castile’s killing.
