Some high-profile gun rights activists and groups bristled on Saturday at government officials’ claims that federal agents may have been justified in killing a Minneapolis man during a protest because he was carrying a pistol.
The right to bear arms in public has been a mainstay of the gun rights movement.
On Saturday, a Los Angeles federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, became a magnet for outrage when he wrote on social mediathat “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don’t do it!”
Gun Owners of America, one of country’s largest gun advocacy groups, said in its own posting that it condemned his “untoward comments.”
The group said that “federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm. The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting — a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”
The gun group also accused “the Left” of “antagonizing” immigration agents.
The exchange could point to political fissures between the gun rights movement and President Trump, who is generally seen as an ally. And it already is sparking debate within a movement that has long warned against government overreach.
The National Rifle Association referred to federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs” in a 1995 mailer. But in a statement Saturday night, the N.R.A. put blame for the shooting on Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and other “radical progressive politicians.” It said their “calls to dangerously interject oneself into legitimate law-enforcement activities have ended in violence.”
“As there is with any officer-involved shooting, there will be a robust and comprehensive investigation that takes place to determine if the use of force was justified,” the group added.
In a separate post, the N.R.A. called Mr. Essayli’s comments “dangerous and wrong.”
“Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens,” it said.
Video footage shows that Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, stepped between a woman and an agent pepper spraying her, and then was sprayed himself. He appeared to hold a phone in one hand and nothing in the other.
As agents restrained him, one appeared to take his pistol, videos show, and then agents opened fire, killing him.
Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis police said that Mr. Pretti was an American citizen with no known criminal record, and had a firearms permit allowing him to carry a gun openly.
“We the people have a right to bear arms in public,” Cam Edwards, a prominent gun rights activist and radio host, said in a social media post. “I’ve encountered countless police while I’ve been armed, and never been shot. The presence of a firearm, by itself, is not an indicator of a criminal intent or a threat to law enforcement.”
Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol official leading the crackdown in Minneapolis, said at a news conference on Saturday that Mr. Pretti “had two loaded magazines,” and appeared to want to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
No evidence has been produced to back up that claim.
Dana Loesch, a former spokeswoman of the National Rifle Association, highlighted Mr. Bovino’s comments, saying in a social media post that “statements like this don’t help. What he has or didn’t have isn’t the issue. What he was doing, with or without it, is the issue. Did he draw on agents? Reach for it? Was it on him?”
Christopher Fernandez, an Orlando, Fla., firearms instructor and founder of Equality In Arms Defensive Training, also took issue with Mr. Bovino. Mr. Fernandez said the official had falsely characterized Mr. Pretti as “a crazed assailant launching himself at C.B.P. officers, pistol drawn and firing with the intent to slaughter as many of them as possible.”
He said that the heavy-handed tactics of federal agents have left people on both sides of the political spectrum “living in fear.”
He added: “How can they not be when this is what we are seeing?”
The Trump administration has argued strongly for the right to carry guns. A Justice Department suit filed in December against the U.S. Virgin Islands over its gun permitting process, for example, noted that “law-abiding citizens” have “a fundamental right to ‘carry handguns publicly for self-defense.’”
Jordan Levine, who runs an online gun rights advocacy company called A Better Way 2A, said that “what happened in Minneapolis shows that ICE will treat the mere presence of a legal firearm as justification for lethal force. Carrying a gun is not a crime, yet it was readily used as proof of dangerous intent once Alex Pretti was dead and unable to contest that narrative.”
Danielle L. Campbell, who helped found Protect Peace, a community outreach group for gun owners in Central and Southern Florida, said she was shocked after watching video of the shooting.
“I’m willing to wait for more facts to come out,” she said. “What I will say is carrying a concealed weapon legally shouldn’t be a death sentence.”
Mike McIntire contributed reporting.
Danny Hakim is a reporter on the Investigations team at The Times, focused primarily on politics.
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