Some Wisconsin gun rights advocates are uneasy about claims from President Donald Trump and his administration that people can’t carry guns during protests.
The comments and the pushback from Second Amendment groups follows Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
Videos of Pretti being shot have sparked public outrage and led to Democrats demanding an end to the surge of agents with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The footage shows one agent removing a handgun from a holster in Pretti’s waistband seconds before he was shot multiple times.
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Asked about Pretti by reporters Tuesday, Trump called it a “very unfortunate incident,” but made it clear he thought Pretti had crossed a line.
“You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns,” Trump told reporters. “You just can’t.”
Since Saturday, other members of Trump’s cabinet have made similar claims. FBI Director Kash Patel said, “You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of Protest that you want.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.”
Dan Marcon of Chippewa Falls owns Marcon Shooting near Eau Claire and has been teaching concealed carry permit classes for the past decade. According to the latest report from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, around 67,000 concealed carry licenses were issued or renewed statewide in 2024.
Marcon told WPR he’s guessing the administration made the comments out of a sense of public safety and they’ll be walked back.
“I don’t think the administration should say stuff like that, because that is your Second Amendment right,” said Marcon. “Let’s say I lived in that neighborhood, and now I’m walking through that neighborhood with my firearm and walking through a protest. Now I can’t have it there? You know, that that’s a bunch of s—.”
While it was his right to carry his gun at the protest, said Marcon, Pretti made some mistakes. In general, he said, those permitted to carry concealed guns are advised to avoid dangerous confrontations.
Marcon described all that lead up to Pretti’s death as “a s— show from the start.”
Wisconsin Firearm Owners President Rob Kovach said he feels like the claims from Trump, Patel, Noem and others in the administration have been taken out of context and were more about “doing unlawful acts while carrying a firearm.” He said while citizens have the fundamental right to keep and bear arms, law enforcement also has the right to self defense.
“The investigation is going to reveal whether or not the the officers’ interpretation of the situation was indeed an act of self defense, but that isn’t going to do any good for Mr. Pretti other than maybe give some solace to his family,” said Kovach.
Tom Grieve, a defense attorney who focuses on Second Amendment cases, said the administration’s warnings about bringing guns to protests don’t “square with the law, nor the Constitution.”
“It’s an absurd misreading and misunderstanding that has no basis in reality, in tradition or jurisprudence,” said Grieve.
He said other than Trump’s past support for “red flag” laws, where courts can temporarily prevent a person from accessing firearms, and a temporary ban on “bump-fire” gun stocks that enable a rifle to mimic fully-automatic machine guns, the president has been “exemplary” on gun rights.
“I am forced to be in a position where I am hoping, as someone who is very pro-Second Amendment, that this is one of the situations where the administration is getting out over its rhetorical skis in order to sound tough and to try to win a political discussion talking point,” Grieve said.
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