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Advocates for interpreting the Second Amendment to mean effectively unrestricted possession of guns, often use two arguments: A constitutional argument, that the Founders intended us to be able to “bear arms” against a tyrannical government. And a social argument, that only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun.
Both these arguments are being called into question by the shooting death by federal agents of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Administration hospital and a licensed gun owner. Pretti never drew his gun or threatened the federal agents who pepper sprayed him, threw him to the ground, pummeled him, and after evidently taking his gun from his pants, shot him to death.
Federal agents enforcing Trump administration policy are using tactics that court after court have found to be illegal, which police leadership describe as outside standard law enforcement practice, which witnesses testify are uncalled for, and which viewers of videos can see are brutal. But unlike these ICE and Border Patrol agents, good guys — civilians, law enforcement, and military — are trained to be cautious about using lethal force and held accountable when they are not.
Without evidence, and in contradiction to the evidence we have seen, Trump administration officials Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Gregory Bonvino and their Republican enablers, rushed to smear Alex Pretti as a domestic terrorist bent on slaughter.
What lesson do they want us to take from these actions by this administration?
Annlinn Kruger
Bar Harbor
