The Trump administration has a Second Amendment problem.
For years, key figures in the Trump administration have declared gun rights nearly absolute. This weekend, after Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis for legally carrying — not brandishing — a firearm, they discovered exceptions.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
What Noem said then:
“The Second Amendment is about deterrence. It’s about ensuring the government respects the rights and the liberty of citizens: ‘A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of a people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,’” Noem said at a 2023 NRA Forum. “God gave you those liberties. God gave you the right to defend yourself and your family. Our government recognizes that right, but we do not have to ask permission to defend it.”
In 2017, as a member of the U.S. House, Noem cosponsored a concealed carry piece of legislation that passed. Official press release here. And as governor of South Dakota, in 2019, she “signed a bill into law eliminating the need for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in the state,” South Dakota Searchlight reported in 2023.
What Noem says now:
“I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” Noem said at the FEMA presser on Saturday. “This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers.” (Note: Pretti was not assaulting law enforcement officers.)
She extended the criticism in an appearance on Fox this Sunday: “We can’t have individuals that are impeding law enforcement operations and then showing up with guns and weapons and no ID and confronting law enforcement like that is one of the reasons that we see situations like this unfold.”
FBI Director Kash Patel
What Patel said then:
In August 2024, the future FBI director spoke at a Gun Owners of America conference. “My mission is your mission, and [it is] … to defeat the most destructive operation in U.S. history — unelected bureaucrats seizing our Constitutional rights… chipping away at your freedoms every single day and chipping away at your Second Amendment rights.”
GOA later publicly supported Patel’s nomination, calling him a “true constitutionalist who shares our commitment to the Second Amendment.” At his Senate confirmation hearing, Patel was questioned by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif, about universal background checks and machine guns. He deferred to the Supreme Court on both.
What Patel says now:
“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want,” Patel said on Fox News this weekend. “It’s that simple. You don’t have a right to break the law.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche
What Blanche said then:
In an interview with Breitbart earlier in January, Blanche said that the Second Amendment “has been treated like a step-child, attacked, questioned … [it] is something President Trump will not stand for. … If you want to own a firearm, if you want to buy a firearm, if you want to carry a firearm, you have a Second Amendment right to do so, limited only by certain fringe issues, period.”
What Blanche says now:
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this Sunday, Blanche was asked if Pretti was disarmed before the shots were fired. Blanche said, “I have heard the same thing you have, that he was lawfully armed, and that’s something that’s important in this country, and there’s nothing wrong with anybody lawfully carrying firearms. But whether he was disarmed, or whether he pulled the gun on law enforcement, whether law enforcement saw him go for the gun, what they have to do is they have to protect themselves.”
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino
What Bovino said then:
“I take children to shooting ranges, and I teach them to shoot to exercise their Second Amendment right,” Bovino told Minnesota State Rep. Sandra Feist. When Feist told Bovino that she wants the people of Minnesota to be able to “live in peace,” Bovino replied “Me too. The Second Amendment does that.”
What Bovino says now:
“Those rights don’t count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct, and impede law enforcement officers — and most especially when you mean to do that beforehand,” Bovino said on CNN. Video evidence does not show Alex Pretti assaulting, obstructing or impeding law enforcement officers.
Nora McKee is the D.C. coordinator for MS NOW.
Peggy Helman is a desk associate at MS NOW.