After Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, Trump administration officials were quick to note a key detail of the scene: that Pretti was carrying a firearm.
“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want, it’s that simple,” FBI Director Kash Patel said to Fox News. “You don’t have that right to break the law and incite violence.”
Witnesses say Pretti was not inciting violence and state officials say he was licensed to carry the gun under Minnesota law. Many other states, including Texas, allow gun owners to carry a firearm in public, either concealed or openly.
Comments like Patel’s pricked the ears of many Second Amendment defenders, including Jerry Patterson. Patterson is a former Republican state senator and land commissioner. While serving in the Senate in 1995, he wrote the state’s concealed handgun law.
Patterson spoke to the Texas Standard about his reaction to the shooting and the federal government’s response. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Well, you recently wrote an op-ed for Texas’ Hearst newspapers about the response to this shooting in Minneapolis. Before we get too deep into its contents, what was your reaction to what happened and how it’s been portrayed by the Trump administration?
Jerry Patterson: Disgust and revulsion. I mean just you can’t continue to lie and expect to maintain credibility and Patel and Noem and they all just made stuff up, but they know that they didn’t have a clue what they’re talking about.
I don’t mean Kash Patel just then said it’s against the law to carry at a demonstration and that’s not accurate. And he’s the director of the FBI. Come on, man.
What do you make of the notion that bringing a gun to a protest, you just mentioned, is asking for trouble. It’s not illegal, but is it asking for trouble and why would they describe it like that?
Well, it’s asking for trouble if you unholster the gun without reason, and it’s asking for trouble if you unholster the gun for no reason, no matter where you are. I mean, the idea that there’s something making it worse by virtue of having a couple of extra magazines or carrying it in the first place is just bizarre.
I mean, I carry a gun every day. I don’t make a determination as to whether, well, I need it here, or I won’t, or where I’m going. And that’s important because if you make these decisions and you say, “well, I’m going to leave it in my truck,” you’re just inviting someone to steal it.
A gun on your person is a safe firearm if it’s a responsible person, and we assume those who have a license have achieved the level of being responsible.
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Well, does it surprise you to hear this kind of rhetoric from Republicans, given that your party has generally supported a strong interpretation of the Second Amendment?
Absolutely. I mean, there’s some folks that have completely flipped, w”ell, you shouldn’t have done that or you can’t do that.” And they were the most vociferous advocates for concealed carry, open carry, constitutional carry.
And all of a sudden, they are now judging this guy as if he’s some kind of terrorist.
Well, tell us a little about your rationale for filing the concealed carry bill back in the 1990s.
Well, it’s called the Second Amendment and that’s what it says. And in Texas we have a constitution, it is Article 1, Section 23 of the Texas Constitution that gives you a right to keep and bear arms.
And it does not make things less safe. In fact, we passed the concealed carry law in 1995 and in the subsequent 20 years, firearms homicides decreased by 50%.
I’m not going to say that’s because of concealed carry, but I am going to say it categorically makes a fool of those people who predicted blood in the streets, Wild, Wild West and shootouts at every four-way stop. That just didn’t happen.
Well, do you think this shooting will make some gun owners who generally carry a firearm in public think twice before doing that?
No, why should it? I mean the problem here is not the presence of the firearm lawfully on the deceased. The problem here, is that several agents of the border patrol decided they were going to shoot him because I don’t know why.
I mean, they gave a rationale, but why should it? He never touched the firearm. He never handled the handgun. And he died and he was essentially murdered, in my opinion, or at least involuntary manslaughter.
I mean, I can understand reaction times by the officers, but to start with there shouldn’t have been a confrontation, there shouldn’t have been an altercation.
They took him down – if you look at the videos, and everybody hopefully has done so – he was backing up. He didn’t approach him. Noem said he approached the officers with a 9mm handgun. He did not. They didn’t know he had it until the scuffle began.
I mean, it’s just bald-faced lying. And that’s become the norm for people like this in the Trump administration.
So is there anything else you’d want to add for people, gun owners in Texas? They encounter law enforcement every day.
That’s absolutely correct, and I have myself encountered peace officers since I passed the law. And the overwhelming majority of peace officers in Texas are very supportive of the right to carry, particularly licensed carry. They’re not so supportive of unlicensed carry, and I understand that.
The problem with unlicensed carry is you didn’t go to class and find out what is the legitimate and lawful use of deadly force. Everybody ought to get a license if you’re going to carry.
