NRA Pushes Back After Trump Suggests Alex Pretti ‘Shouldn’t Have Been Carrying a Gun’

(Evan Vucci | Credit: AP) (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

The National Rifle Association (NRA) declared its absolutist stance on gun rights in a statement just hours after President Donald Trump suggested that Alex Pretti, the Minnesota VA nurse fatally shot by federal agents on Saturday, “shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.”

Pretti was reportedly a legal gun owner, and Minnesota law permits concealed carry with a valid permit. Video circulating online appears to show one Border Patrol officer confiscating Pretti’s firearm during a struggle, before another officer fatally shot him while he was unarmed and on the ground.

Footage of the incident appears to confirm that Pretti did not reach for his weapon or point it at agents. Federal authorities are investigating.

In the short statement published via X on Tuesday, however, the country’s biggest gun lobby wrote: “The NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right to be.”

The statement comes amid a growing rift between Second Amendment activists and Trump has emerged following comments by him and members of his administration since the incident.

While the NRA statement did not mention Trump by name it followed remarks by the president just hours earlier, speaking to diners during a stop in Iowa on Tuesday, where he suggested Pretti “certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.”

He described the killing as a “very, very unfortunate incident” but added: “I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff.”

Asked more about the shooting, Trump called it “a very sad situation” and promised a “very honorable and honest investigation,” adding: “I’m going to be watching over it.”

The NRA has already issued a rebuke of First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who cautioned against carrying a weapon when approaching law enforcement, labeling such claims “dangerous and wrong.”

The organisation warned Essayli: “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.” The prosecutor in turn accused the organization of mischaracterizing his comment.

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