The National Rifle Association (NRA) criticized comments by a senior federal prosecutor warning that approaching law enforcement with a gun could justify a fatal police response, saying such statements risk “demonizing law‑abiding citizens” as the nation reels from the killing of a man in Minneapolis by a U.S. border agent.
The NRA was responding to remarks by Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, who said that “if you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you,” adding, “Don’t do it.”
In a statement, the gun‑rights group called that view “dangerous and wrong,” urging public officials to refrain from broad generalizations and to wait for the outcome of a full investigation into Alex Pretti’s death.
Why give a fuck what these race baiting shitbirds have to say? Whenever one of them there uppity colored folks gets murdered by the state, the NRA falls in line to blame the victim. If that victim owned their firearm legally, and was exercising their 2A rights… suddenly the NRA goes quiet.
We’ve seen this for fucking decades. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The NRA took their mask all the way off and became a pro-violence propaganda outlet right after 911; prior to that, they were actually in the business of educating and advocating for responsible gun ownership.
So again, WHY should we care about what the NRA believes society should think or feel in the face of a blatant state sponsored execution? The only thing I want from the NRA is to see it’s HQ as a plie of smoldering rubble before I croak.
For myself, I think the NRA is both culturally irrelevant AND completely fucking complicit in ALL of this.
Every word you write is true.
That said, to answer your question, the NRA is shitting itself because if gun ownership – or any facet thereof, like open carry – becomes illegal in the US that’s very bad for the NRA, and possibly the abrupt end of the gravy train for them if the rights of 2A suddenly become as irrelevant as, say, the rights of 4A.
This statement is nothing more than spin because even the execs counting the right-wing cash can see that this was murder and not even remotely any legitimate act of law enforcement. They just don’t want to be on the receiving end of growing public anger.
There are probably many NRA supporters that support ICE. If those folks feel their concealed carry “rights” are being violated by ICE (or that they are being put in danger by an ICE response to concealed carry), they may turn against ICE. That would be very good. The more folks against ICE, the better. That is why I am enthused that the NRA responded in this way. It is a small step that hopefully moves toward something bigger.