The shooting of Alex Pretti
There is nothing simple about this case. I’ve been mulling it over and watching videos, and the only thing that’s clear to me is that the situation is murky and (as is often the case) people tend to see what they want to see or expect to see or what conforms to their pre-existing notions. I’ve read many things about it already that turn out to be untrue – or seemingly untrue.
Despite the plethora of videos, none of them show enough to come to a definitive conclusion. We don’t know exactly what led up to the confrontation, or exactly what Pretti was doing with his hands during it, or what was seen and understood by whom, or whether as the officer removed Pretti’s gun it misfired and that set off the fatal shooting in response to a misperception, or many of the most important things we would need to know to come to a strong conclusion about guilt or innocence.
I watched the following video to the bitter end, and although the speakers don’t come to any definite conclusions and it is extremely long, I think it’s valuable to watch at least some of it because it illustrates how very confusing the various videos of the shooting are. One thing that seems to be true is that whether Pretti’s weapon accidentally discharged (in the hands of the officer) as the first shot of the series is of great importance, because if that were the case it probably would absolve the officers of criminal although not civil liability.
So here’s the video. Make of it what you will:
Another thing that seems to be true is that if there’s a criminal trial this would be a federal case; Minnesota would not get to try federal officers in a state trial.
One more video that seems worth watching is this from Andrew Branca, lawyer and expert in self-defense; it’s also extremely long:
Maybe it’s time to cut off ALL federal funds to Minnesota until it complies with federal law.
How much of this is really about the fraud investigations, at least for Walz and Frey?
It’s clear that this is more than old-fashioned protests. It’s some kind of insurgency and who knows how many more fools like Pretti are around.
From what I understand, he told his father he was going to the (mostly peaceful) riots and his father told him not to do anything stupid. He then took a loaded gun to the riots. Looks like a really good candidate for the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards are given to people who do something really stupid and get removed from the gene pool in a spectacular manner.
Whether Pretti was the victim or the instigator is I think of much less significance than his membership in and acting for a group of well-organized and funded people who have a mission to interfere with law enforcement, and that this group includes members of the local and state Democratic establishment who have been communicating their aims and methods online.
On Reddit people are talking quite openly about organizing similar ones in other Blue cities.
This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells
Long interesting piece here: https://x.com/Schwalm5132/status/2015470661490057540
Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners.
I don’t think it is complicated: don’t confront law officers while armed, bad things happen. If there is blame, it lies with Walz, Frey, and the organizers of the resistance. The complications are just scavengers fighting over the carcass for advantage.
Good article on the highly sophisticated ICE resistance efforts which amount to insurrection:
—“Anti-ICE Signal Chats: Walz Administration Implicated, Foreign Funding Revealed”
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2026/01/26/link-to-walzs-administration-in-anti-ice-signal-chats-n2198511
Maybe the DOJ can cut the head off this snake.
Pretti put himself into a situation that had a high probability of turning really bad. How so? By bringing a gun.
I don’t feel sorry one bit about what happened to Pretti. He knew damn well what he was doing and his goal was to instigate an incident.
It’s one thing to create an incident without having a weapon; it’s entirely another story to do this having a loaded gun.
If you get stopped for speeding by the police , step out of your car with a gun. Don’t be surprised if you get shot .
By the way; anyone notice that the “demonstrators” have shown ZERO support for the victims of the crimes the illegal aliens have committed.?
For those with concealed carry permits, don’t they train you on what to do if you encounter law enforcement while carrying? I’m pretty sure that what Pretti did is not what is recommended.
I’m also unimpressed with armchair quarterbacks who go back frame-by-frame and decide what law enforcement should have done. These things happen in the blink of an eye, and if the LEO guesses wrong, he’s the one not going home to his family.
Also, the organized agitation going on in Minnesota is chilling. This is nothing less than an attempted nullification of federal law and federal law enforcement that has the full support of the state and local governments. (The Lt. Gov. of MN is purportedly an administrator of the ICE Watch channels). By confronting law enforcement, they are repeatedly and regularly creating conditions where tragedies like Pretti and Good are inevitable. If neither side backs down, there will be more civilians deaths. (And we know full well from experience that leftists would not tolerate the same sort of thing from the right.)
That said, the Trump administration is losing the propaganda war, badly. Kristi Noem is a bad joke. Accusing these MN folks of being domestic terrorists is crazy and counter-productive. It looks to me as though Good and Pretti were both ordinary Minnesotans who got caught up in a misguided movement that they believed to be on the side of good and ended up acting stupidly in furtherance of that movement. And, justified or otherwise, the Pretti shooting looks a lot worse than Good.
Trump needs a serious course correction here, up to and including cleaning house among the leadership of DHS and ICE and bringing in replacements who are not MAGA fire-breathers. Trump can’t lose this one because if he does, blue states (and blue states only) will have acquired a de facto veto on the enforcement of federal law, and that would be intolerable.
Some sort of retreat or regroup is absolutely necessary, however. Doubling down with more of the same, which seems to be Trump’s go-to move, is not going to work here. Trump has already lost the middle and, in doing so, is creating a serious risk of empowering the left.
I also read reports this morning that this ICE Watch group and its fellow travelers are encouraging Minnesotans to bring their children to these “demonstrations.” I think they really want to get a kid killed so they can use it against Trump. That’s despicable, but Trump can’t walk right into their trap.
It seems that Kristi Noem’s initial statements about this shooting were inaccurate and led to some of the uproar about this. Tom Homan has now been sent to get the situation under better control, a good move.
I agree that unfolding evidence about how organized this is and to what high levels in Minnesota the organization reaches is damning. These people are running an organized insurrection against federal law enforcement.
I want to understand what happened before the altercation with the Feds. What brought him to their attention? That said, so many on the right go on about their gun rights, then blame the guy for having a weapon that he had a permit for. Yes, he really shouldn’t have had the gun, but he had the same rights to it as you and I.
I know what to do if I am carrying and stopped by the police. At least I used to know, but all guns I had are at the bottom of Lake Carter, or sold at an auction.
I think the lead in explaining the situation in Minneapolis and other blue cities should be the vice-president. We need someone articulate and quick on their feet with the ability to analyze and change mid sentence.
From what I have seen of Homan and Noem, I don’t think they fit the job description. Also, they are two invested in their organization to be dispassionate in their public responses.
Focusing on the coordinated organizational protesters bent on disruption and provocation with goal of preventing federal law enforcement from carrying out the mandate the American people gave the Trump Administration may put this battle into the context and focus it needs at this time.
The left media are reporting that Walz called President Trump this morning and the President Socialed that they had a good conversation. I have not been able to verify the report with mainstream news media like Breitbart.
Here’s a report from Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-walz-wants-work-together-minneapolis-tensions-flare-after-federal-shooting
I am skeptical that Walz pivoted from calling Federal agents Gestapo to cooperating with the president but it might have happened. As they say, developing.
What we are missing are the evidentiary statements of the participants (mostly officers) in the event. The statement, for instance, of the grey-clad fellow who removed Pretti’s gun from its holster and sprinted away. What did he say, what did he see, what did he do? And etc. for each of the others now wrapped into the investigation. Lacking all these, there is scant certainty to be had about the event. And thus we wait in the fog for what little certainty which can be brought forth to emerge.
With all the firearm laws with Marxist states, would bet Pretti violated many of them. If so, and read he had no identification, and a few magazines with him chances are that is one there.
The level of organization being used by these insurrectionists (they are not protestors) as reported by FOX and others is chilling. And the video evidence so far on the shooting, as Neo says, is murky at best.
huxley:
“Maybe the DOJ can cut the head off this snake.” Yeah, another strongly worded letter from Bondi.
Believe it or not, huxley, but back in my naive freshman year at Univ. of Colo, 1970 I attended several SDS meetings. It became quite clear that they didn’t give a damn about the war, but saw it as a vehicle. I remember one meeting where the leader said they had intel on an upcoming offensive operation in Vietnam, and how they are organizing for “protests” once it happens. I think the same thing here. They couldn’t care less about ICE and the arrests, etc. It’s just a way to ramp up the revolution by using the situation. Too bad so many of the “cannon fodder’ people buy into what they are selling.
Multiple layers of corruption and Marxist activism…. it seems lots of the scams were about money laundering and building the organization that is now taking to the streets.
Most of the violent clashes are coming from a handful of counties in cities with mayors who fan the flames of insurrection.
Trump is correct to hold off. The Left is desperate for a response that justifies escalation.
1. Every headline convinces a fence-sitting voter, and shocks a bien-pensant college educated person out of complacently following fashion.
2. The pain is largely self-inflicted. States and counties that are in compliance are experiencing peace wage and price improvement, and a clearing of the squalor that came with the immigrant squatters. Don Surber points out that popular support for these things burns out very quickly.
Bob Wilson – What has been described in the media of the organized resistance in MN looks a heck of a lot like a conspiracy to obstruct justice or potentially a RICO issue. Waltz and a number of other state and local politicians could have a problem. That might explain Waltz’s change of heart.
Of course, doing anything about it assumes that Trump is able to restrain himself long enough to nominate a competent a US Attorney and let him or her do the job without micromanagement from the White House. So far in Trump 2.0, that’s been too much to ask.
(Trump/Bodi had a very good and very well respected US Attorney in MN who was successfully prosecuting the Feeding our Futures fraud cases and had been doing the same under Biden. It was this US Attorney who estimated that the total losses from the MN fraud scandals could be over $9B. The left was trying to smear him as a Trump toadie, but this was a tough sell because he had also been appointed by Biden. Anyway, Trump/Bondi ran him off a few weeks ago, reportedly because they demanded that he indict Renee Good’s purported partner.)
John Hinderaker of powerlineblog corroborates the truthsocial post about the President’s Telecon with Walz.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/01/a-rapprochement.php
It looks to me as though Good and Pretti were both ordinary Minnesotans who got caught up in a misguided movement that they believed to be on the side of good and ended up acting stupidly in furtherance of that movement.
It isn’t misguided, it is an insurgency.
The SIG P320 pistol has developed a reputation for going off in holsters, etc. , to the extent it has been banned by PDs and in shooting schools. There is a lot of contention and debate about where the fault lies, but at this point I wouldn’t buy one (except as a range toy but I’m not wealthy enough for that approach).
Larry Correia expresses my view as only he can.
Bauxite on January 26, 2026 at 12:44 pm said:
For those with concealed carry permits, don’t they train you on what to do if you encounter law enforcement while carrying? I’m pretty sure that what Pretti did is not what is recommended.
He was one of the direct action types using low level violence against ICE. As such what level of training he had with the firearm is irrelevant, he was already breaking laws. Considering what he was engaged in he should have left the gun at home.
Armed protests are fine, like the one done in Virginia a few years back. But it was peaceful and legal.
It’s one thing for a semi-auto handgun to be loaded, and another for it to be ready to fire in an accidental manner. If a loaded magazine is inserted, it’s loaded. But it will never fire until a round is chambered, which means racking the slide with some considerable effort.
The Pretti handgun is a Sig P320 copilot told me. So that’s a striker fired pistol similar in operation to a typical Glock 9mm. Once a round is chambered, there is no firing safeguard other than, “Don’t pull the trigger.” And the holster. Many consider the holster to be the ultimate safety factor. Once the officer pulls the gun from the holster, the trigger is exposed (inside a trigger guard).
The standard trigger pull force for the stock gun is claimed to be 6.5 lb, which is kinda light, but not exceptionally light. People often modify triggers for different pull forces.
Lots of conceal carry people (I don’t carry) recommend carrying in a holster with a round chambered. Personally, I don’t like the potential for accidents, and if I were to carry, I would do so either with an empty chamber, or I would use a gun with a thumb operated safety. Which the P320 does not have.
In 2024 Minnesota, Harris got 1.6 million votes and Trump got 1.5 million. Let’s not throw the Trump people under the bus with the commies.
The commies ought to remember that if it comes to civil war.
TommyJay, Sig P320s have had issues going off in holsters and in other situations where supposedly the trigger wasn’t pulled. There has been a major controversy over this. At one point Sig came out with the “It ends today” narrative to shut it down but it has continued.
There are a number of videos of P320s firing in holsters, worn by police or on the target range.
Lots of conceal carry people (I don’t carry) recommend carrying in a holster with a round chambered. Personally, I don’t like the potential for accidents, and if I were to carry, I would do so either with an empty chamber, or I would use a gun with a thumb operated safety. Which the P320 does not have.
The general recommendation is to carry with a loaded chamber, so that you can immediately respond. Also racking the slide increases the chance of a jam.
It looks to me as though Good and Pretti were both ordinary Minnesotans who got caught up in a misguided movement that they believed to be on the side of good and ended up acting stupidly in furtherance of that movement. And, justified or otherwise, the Pretti shooting looks a lot worse than Good.
==
You’re not looking very far. Their object was to harass federal police officers doing their jobs and to do so as part of a city-wide conspiracy run by a known Democratic operative and financed by Arabella Partners.
==
Renee Ganger (‘Good’) wasn’t an ‘ordinary Minnesotan’. She’d moved their only recently, then involved herself in ‘direct action’ politics, not something ‘ordinary’ people do. (She was 37 years old, had run through two divorce proceedings, had custody of only one of her three children, had no discernable occupation or vocational training, was into her mother for money, and had recently taken off on a lesbian jag. This woman was a drama generator).
==
Alex Pretti was 37 years old, the son of Michael Pretti. His father’s an engineer who has lived and worked variously in suburban Milwaukee, Green Bay, suburban Chicago, and (for the last decade) suburban Denver. The son appears to have spent the largest share of his upbringing in Green Bay, then decamped to Minneapolis about 13 years ago. It’s a reasonable wager that’s where he went to nursing school. Unlike Renee Ganger, he had an occupation. He married at age 33 and was divorced within a couple of years; he had no children. The remarks of his parents suggest he was as a youth marinated in the self-aggrandizing contempt of this age.
“Maybe the DOJ can cut the head off this snake.” Yeah, another strongly worded letter from Bondi.
physicsguy:
When I was on the left, the standard rhetorical move was “Lefter than thou.”
On the right it is “More cynical than thou.”
Interesting.
The general recommendation is to carry with a loaded chamber, so that you can immediately respond. Also racking the slide increases the chance of a jam. — Don
Yes, well the gun responded immediately in the Pretti case. I’m being flip, but I get it. Racking a slide takes time & in a panic, it’s something else to go wrong. Almost certainly, if I were to carry, I would have a thumb operated safety.
I haven’t followed gun news in a long while, but there was modest time period long ago where a select few Glock 9mm handguns would fire upon racking the slide. Pretty bad, and they fixed it. I can’t imagine that Sig would not be very proactive in fixing such things. Although, who knows?
I have no idea what occurred in the moments before Pretti was shot. Maybe we will know definitively long after it doesn’t matter to anyone but the participants.
I do know that it borders on madness to carry a firearm (with 42 rounds?) to a confrontational protest. Then to trigger (no pun intended) some kind of reaction from law enforcement that leads to a physical altercation tips the scale to utter madness.
I sent an email to a number of folks who probably won’t read it. I commented that the Left thinks they have another martyr. To which I reply, ‘balderdash’. A Martyr takes a stand knowing that there may be very serious consequences. It is not martyrdom to believe that you can ‘tweak authority’ without consequences.
I also commented that only a fool would behave in a manner that could be seen as any level of threat to an armed police officer. To do so in the environment that existed, and to officers who have endured confrontation, insult, and outright attacks over a period of time, is utter madness.
I support the idea of cutting all funding to Minnesota, citing the massive fraud, as well as the current lawlessness. I also support the idea of telling the Federal Judiciary that tries to interfere, to ‘go to hell’. And I repeat my position that Trump should close all federal offices in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area on the grounds that those locales are an unsafe work environment. Removing the Air Traffic Controllers from the MSY tower would send a message that Minneapolis is isolated.
This situation is a cancer that has the potential to metastasize.
TommyJay et al, in re the Sig P320 discharges
Ian McCullum (Forgottenweapons.com and on YouTube) has discussed the P320 issues several times. In his admittedly ‘outside looking in’ but otherwise well-informed opinion, what is likely happening is something he terms ‘tolerance stacking’ where a certain series of slight variations in the fit of the components of the firing mechanism produce a situation where the striker will release with very light trigger pressure or even just a rough jolt. This is exacerbated by Sig’s decision not to put a grip safety on the P320. He suspects it was not caught during engineering evaluation because the prototype guns had generally higher quality components, and only became evident after thousands of guns had been manufactured with parts of varying tolerances. Even if Sig knows the specific configuration that compromises a P320 and has corrected it for new production, because the situation is caused by a random selection of parts it likely would be necessary to recall virtually every P320 made, a proposition that would likely bankrupt them.
I suppose the safest gun to carry in a holster would be a single action revolver with a modern hammer block to prevent accidental firing if the hammer is struck. Even go so far as to not carry a round in the chamber under the hammer. I don’t carry, but if I did some version of that might be what I would carry. If that type is legal to carry.
And if someone wrestled the gun away from you – they couldn’t fire it unless they thought to cock the hammer.
Related (Turley):
“Mobocracy: Democratic Politicians Compete In Race To The Bottom Over ICE Shooting”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mobocracy-democratic-politicians-compete-race-bottom-over-ice-shooting
Opening grafs:
[Emphasis in original; Barry M.]
Oldflyer on January 26, 2026 at 3:23 pm said:
. . .
I do know that it borders on madness to carry a firearm (with 42 rounds?) to a confrontational protest. Then to trigger (no pun intended) some kind of reaction from law enforcement that leads to a physical altercation tips the scale to utter madness.
I believe that Oathkeepers and IIRC Three Percenters would go in fully armed into riots but they were very careful to avoid violence when doing so. They actually acted to calm things down.
Others, like Proud Boys would fight the leftists but they went in unarmed.
It just seems pretty sensible to me that you don’t take a loaded gun to a demonstration, especially an automatic with two loaded magazines.
If you chose this course of action, it seems to me that, somewhere in the back (or perhaps even the front) of your mind, you are anticipating some, perhaps, lethal trouble.
If you are carrying the weapon, the temptation is there to use it.
Then, of course, there is the issue of just how trained and capable you might be with that particular weapon, including un-holstering and deploying your weapon, then, re-holstering it, especially in a highly charged situation.
Automatics are a lot harder to use than the much simpler revolvers–lots more controls and chances to fumble, for an accident to happen, and some commenters have said that this particular model is known to have had some misfire problems.
I ‘m startled to admit to myself that I have no sympathy for the people who’ve engaged in the organized “direct action” political confrontations of “Ice Watch.”
If these people somehow get themselves killed, I just mentally shrug my shoulders and say “so what?”
It’s an odd feeling. If I see a dog hit by a car, I’m filled with pity. If I see a Marxist insurrectionist killed on video, I don’t care. I don’t think this is just about politics anymore.
I am opposed to punishing all of Minnesota when the Cackler didn’t even get 51% of the vote and how much of that is due to election fraud, voter fraud, immigration fraud and census fraud. Remove the criminals running the state. Roll up their crime syndicate.
Here is a thread on the problems with the P320:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/The-Official-SIG-P320-video-thread/5-2806029/
I assume Ian of Forgotten Weapons is linked on one of the pages.
Note on the videos of the airman that was killed. The investigation seems to have determined it was the fault of another airman.
https://x.com/mask_bastard/status/2015280206366294456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015280206366294456%7Ctwgr%5E980a116dce1e43e038ce7c074e7775109910d5b9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fdhs-investigating-whether-prettis-gun-accidentally-fired%2F
DHS is looking at the accidental discharge – this video is pretty clear.
Cornflour @4:48pm,
That is a toxic attitude. Don’t let it win. Every human is made in God’s likeness and redeemable.
Evil wants us to lose sight of others’ humanity. And our own. Don’t let the actions of lost, struggling souls turn yours against hope and virtue.
Bauxy: “Renee Good’s purported partner”
You mean the one I heard on a video say “Drive baby drive” when the car was pointed right at an ICE agent?
He brought two extra loaded magazines to the demo. Why, I wonder. Did he say to himself, before leaving his home, “Gee, the one mag I’ve got in my gun may not be enough if I get into firefight with the ICE people. Better bring two more.”
It’s a tragic outcome any way that you cut it. Between this guy and Renee Goode, I get the distinct idea that they were like many Progressive Liberals I have known throughout my life, well-intentioned but highly manipulable. And there are some really nasty people up there in the hierarchy of subversive organizations, the professionals, who see these kinds of people as very, very useful to their purposes, which are not the objectives that are advertised – like ‘protecting poor, defenseless immigrants who are just trying to improve their life.’ A dead protestor is gold. Too bad, but business is business. Their lives are a risk the organizers are quite happy to take, and it just so happens they have a plan in place if the ‘unfortunate’ should happen.
Pretti did quite a few things that were ill-advised in their own right, but in totality were fairly likely to bring on disaster, and when he strung them together, they did.
The same was true with Goode – you could see from her face, she was excited and thinking it was fun, having zero awareness of the danger she had put herself into by following the instructions of her partner, the one that had talked her into ‘adventures in activism’.
RIP to both of them. If I were living in Minnesota I would be wondering what kind of political leadership can not only view these events, but actually egg them on to do even more. I don’t see their sorry *sses out in the street – That’s what I would be thinking. Do they really believe the Feds are just going to roll up their tent and leave? So, in addition to being cowards, they’re stupid, too?
FOAF:
Saint Sparkles and her Acolyte Drive, Baby, Drive.
CC™ sees them pure as freshly fallen snow.
perception is everything; facts don’t matter
marxists/islamists on one side; police state on the other
“orangeman can do no good” is the call of the day
we in between are f*d regardless
@DT: we in between are f*d regardless
But at least we have each other!
________________________
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right
Here I am
Stuck in the middle with you
—Stealers Wheel, “Stuck in the Middle With You” (1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeC0-PO2BVw
In the spring of 1876, my great grandfather’s cavalry company was in Shreveport, LA providing escort for US Marshals and tax collectors. They were protecting the Feds that were going after the Klan and untaxed whiskey. Maybe old ways are the best ways.
He was then transferred to Bismarck via Saint Paul and had that unfortunate trip to Montana but still … SCOTUS implied Trump can use the army.
The deaths of these two unfortunate souls were 100% avoidable, once people decide to go from peaceful assembly to direct physical confrontation, their probability of getting some consequence compounds.
But they are expendable pawns in the bigger picture of Democrats needing an electoral hammer.
How I despise Walz and Frey, et al. and their sick demented schemes.
Huh… looks like Bovino has been demoted…
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/?gift=iCIfF4GEDp_mwO92L_YYQCOkWSHV-H2U4DLB1iD6470
Does Chris realize that the Atlantic may be giving him a spin on Bovino?
Probably not. Bless his heart.
I have issue with people questioning why he brought a firearm to a riot. It doesn’t matter, really, given he’s protected under the 2A to do so. (The comments by Kash Patel are bogus; he’s being selective in order to put to onus on Pretti.) Deduct points for not carrying ID. Deduct points for (sorta) impeding ICE agents. Besides staying home and not participating, or staying on the sidewalk away from the ICE agents, there were a number of things that could’ve been done by the ICE agents in order to better de-escalate the situation.
One issue I see is the lack of communication between the agents when Pretti’s gun was taken out of his holster. Did the other agents know his gun was taken away? The other is poor judgment of the ICE agent who pulled the trigger; was Pretti still considered an automatic threat despite him not facing or not align with the officer that shot him? I’m not sure of their de-escalation training, but whatever is being done (shoving people to the ground, punching them) isn’t making them resist less. Something needs to be amended in their training.
I feel the rhetoric in defense of FAFO in support of ICE (which I totally understand and to a degree I agree) is setting a precedent that leads to true authoritarianism. It sets free rein for ICE and other LEOs to do whatever they feel like it under the impression of “feeling threatened” (sounds familiar??), but that’s gradually allowing then be actual bullies to citizens, ironically fulfilling The Left’s perception of them (ACAB).
“Every human is made in God’s likeness and redeemable.” Rufus T. Firefly
Yes, every human is made in God’s likeness.
No, unfortunately every human is not redeemable. Some people are simply evil, sadistic monsters.
Speaking of things that could’ve been done, like preventative measures, is what a couple of other posters pointed out: Walz and Frey spoke too much about how much they didn’t want ICE in the Twin Cities, in the state of Minnesota, and how Trump was mean — puffing out their chests, that they (deliberately?) forgot to emphasize to protest safely and respectfully. They seemingly ignored all the clashes between ICE agents and protestors/rioters, but instead focused on the arrests.
The Chicago Police Department superintendent came out and said that if you impede an LEO as they do their job you’re playing with fire. Dang, when Chicago reminds you to not be stupid you know you missed a step. I don’t recall Walz or Frey saying what he said. But then again I think said Minnesota politicians sorta kinda wanted this to happen; they secretly wanted and even relished the chaos because they knew sooner or later someone was gonna be six feet under. And Dems never let a serious crisis go to waste.
I don’t know much about civilian firearms, but when I run across a conversation between those who claim to, the Sig sometimes comes up as more than other makes, possibly to fire when you didn’t ask it to. That’s one possibility with it when the agent had taken it away.
The other is that the agent accidentally hit the trigger and the gun fired. This would require there be a round in the chamber, the hammer/striker cocked to hit the primer when fired and the safety off. In other words, prepared by the owner to be able to be fired with a single touch of the trigger. Not a good way to “just carry”. Although some guys say if you have to ready the weapon–off the safety, for example–you won’t be able to fire soon enough in one of the situations they anticipate. Still, dangerous if not handled VERRRY carefully.
But agents were yelling “GUN! GUN!”, not “FRED’S GOT THE GUN, EVERYTHING IS OKAY”
Pretti had the phone in one hand. These guys wield their phones as if they’re weapons. And from on or another position, the shoulder and arm might be visible but not the hand and the former look as if the guy has something in his hand, whatever if would be when you get to where you can see it. But GUN.
Reasonable belief in the high possibility of death or great bodily inuury….
I may have said this before. I’ll tighten my truss so I don’t do myself a mischief….Here goes….has anybody seen this degree of concern for details and risk in the shooting of Ashli Babbitt? Excuse me a moment…… Geez, I crack myeslf up. I’ll check back tomorrow, really need to be out of here….
Back in the early frontier days of the Texas Rangers, when they would laconically say ‘One riot, one Ranger’, the standard saying was ‘I’m here to bring Law and Order, and first we’re going to have Order.’ Those initial tactics might have been brutal, but they were both necessary and effective toward a meaningful end.
I know it sounds corny and a little stupid to say that, but the unremarked theme here is that there is an element of orchestration to all of this that is now being alluded to, but not really reported on. It’s sophisticated and well-financed, and has depth. Are there elements within the city / state government that are in cahoots, using the machinery of government, i.e. license plate scanners, databases, and so on, piping information into the organized resistance so that the feds might be targeted? And not just doxxed, but their families targeted, too?
And: How organized? If they’re running their own signal ops, and are sophisticated enough to use partitioned cells, encrypted communications, and have internal security departments, then how come they get to be anonymous, if not completely invisible and absent from the discussion? Seems to me we should be critiquing all of the players, not just the home team.
@ Oldflyer > “Maybe we will know definitively long after it doesn’t matter to anyone but the participants.”
That looks to be the new paradigm, but in many cases it turns out that WE knew what happened long before the Marxist Media was willing to print it.
(Covid is the major current case in point, but there are plenty of others).
However, I am seriously thinking of extending the “3 day rule,” for looking at what is known after the initial hysteria and sound-bites calm down, to a “3 week rule,” or until ALL the various relevant videos have been acquired and analyzed (hopefully by unbiased observers — if such even exist any more).
Did Pretti have a conceal permit?
Did he have ID and proof of such?
Now we’ve got the woman who tried to grab and throw back a flash bang, and reportedly lost a few fingers in the process.
Maybe it’s all the felt “romance” and “adventure” of being a part of some covert organization–you’re part of an action movie–dressing the part, running around and screaming, taking action against “the Man.”
It seems that all of these worked up foot soldiers don’t realize that they’re just “useful idiots,” pawns being played by Leftist idealogues (and their financiers, who are even further removed from any possible harm coming to them) who will not, themselves, risk their skins in any of these protests/riots.
Ms. Stumpy never learned that childhood lesson that fireworks are dangerous.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings write in red.
The FAFO Appendices.
You may ask how did Ms Stumpy loose (Marisa) her digits?
A flash bang grenade has a thick aluminum housing with large circular perforations. When the flash powder inside ignites the hot bright gasses exit through the perforations at high speed but the aluminum housing remains intact.
Bang/flash and fingers go flying if they were over the openings in the housing.
Being that close, Ms Stumpy may also have permanent hearing losses.
Ignorance has its costs.
I liked this at instapundit.
https://instapundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-26-at-9.04.08%E2%80%AFPM.png
It has always puzzled me why we didn’t follow up on our great successes, and go on to expand our Moon exploration program–setting up permanent bases, and eventually larger colonies–and just gave up, and never went back.
The Moon is not what we are being told it is.
Here is an exploration of what Astronaut Charles Duke and others of the 12 men who have walked on the Moon have been saying–as they get closer to the ends of their lives, and more free of NASA influence, or caring about reputation–about their experiences there, and the anomalous things–including, says Duke, a “Presence,” (they all felt “watched”), and what appeared to be an ancient wall built of individual blocks–ancient given all of the meteorite impact marks on it–that Duke and his fellow astronaut encountered, radioed to NASA about, and took many pictures of, which NASA has made sure you do not know about—pictures never released, “disappeared,” or not released because of supposed “quality issues,” voice transcripts with deliberate gaps, etc. *
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHXUHOCb-Xs&t=190s
Yeah, we already had a lot of sunk costs–we had the launch complex, we had the manufacturing base and the tested ship models, we had a lot of Astronauts, we had the training and the experience, and the spectacle of it all generated a lot of public excitement and enthusiasm which could have carried the program forward, yet, when you would think that things were just getting started, it all just died.
Why?
Unicorns control the budget. Shhsh, it’s a super secret.
Did Pretti have a conceal permit? — Skip
Yes, he did. So a training class is almost always required for that. I’ve never taken one, but I believe any good class would strongly warn you not to mess with police while armed. Many plain clothed good guys wielding firearms have been mistakenly shot by police.
– – – – – –
This would require there be a round in the chamber, the hammer/striker cocked to hit the primer when fired and the safety off. In other words, prepared by the owner to be able to be fired with a single touch of the trigger. — Richard Aubrey
I think Glock was one of the first widespread “striker fired pistols” or a least the best known. I own a Springfield XD which is very similar, as is Pretti’s Sig P320.
You rack the slide and when the slide snaps back, you now automatically have a round in the chamber and the striker will be cocked. There is no manual safety. There are no controls for the striker other than pulling the trigger. I’m not a fan of this set of features. I think classic handguns like a 1911 is much better, at least in terms of safety.
The XD was my first handgun & I wouldn’t buy a basic striker fired pistol now. I also have a CZ-75B which is better (with a manual safety) & more accurate, though heavy.
@om, it is certainly possible that The Atlantic is trying to spin me on Bovino.
Do you think Fox News is doing the same?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/conservative-immigration-experts-split-whether-trump-backing-down-mn-ice-fight
“ In addition to reported plans to retreat from Minnesota, the top Border Patrol official leading deportation operations around the country, including in Minnesota, will be reassigned back to his former duties as chief of Border Patrol in the El Centro, California sector as of currently, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported.”
Chris on January 27, 2026 at 11:43 am said:
@om, it is certainly possible that The Atlantic is trying to spin me on Bovino.
Do you think Fox News is doing the same?
WH is saying he isn’t demoted. It’s possible he was moved because he became a flashpoint or for safety reasons.
TommyJay,
One of the better current striker fired handguns is the S&W M&P series. There is an option for a manual safety.
GoldRushApple on January 26, 2026 at 11:10 pm said:
I have issue with people questioning why he brought a firearm to a riot. It doesn’t matter, really, given he’s protected under the 2A to do so.
The issue is that he brought a gun to a riot when he intended to interfere with law enforcement. Bringing the gun in itself isn’t the issue.
If you intend to resist police and interfere with them, bringing a firearm into the mix can quickly result in escalation. Which is what happened here.
om of the Unicorns–You’re gonna love this.
Some in the “UFO community” speculate that the reason we have not been back to the Moon is that we humans were told by some sort of Presence there, “Don’t come back.”
If Ashli Babbit “had it coming”, then so did Renee Good and Alex Pretti. If I am not supposed to feel outrage over Babbit’s death, then I don’t see why I should have any over Good’s and Pretti’s. If the Capitol cop who defended himself by shooting Babbit got a promotion afterward, why should I be calling for the heads of the two agents involved in the current fatalities? All three deaths involved protestors demonstrating in places they thought they had the right to be in and resultant encounters with law enforcement officers. If the cop who shot Babbit had no way to know if the woman crawling through the window wasn’t armed and not an immediate danger to his life, why don’t the agents involved in the current incidents get the same pass? Why is one demonstration/protest considered an organized insurrection, and the other one not?
Most importantly, why should a government on the Right cave to mob tactics from the Left? We saw very clearly in 2021 what happens when there’s a government on the Left and the Right tries the same tactics the Left successfully tried in 2020. The Left was so successful in 2020 that they are trying again in 2025/2026. They will never stop as long as they continue to be successful.
Turns out that about 1 week before Pretti got himself killed, he suffered a broken rib during an altercation with a DHS or ICE officer.
So Pretti had no qualms about physically confronting federal officers; he had done it before.
Somebody commented earlier;
“I have issue with people questioning why he brought a firearm to a riot. It doesn’t matter, really, given he’s protected under the 2A to do so. ”
True, he does have 2A rights.
But that does not mean you can turn off your brain and do something really stupid like bringing a loaded gun to physically confront armed federal agents.
Our Constitution does give us individual freedoms, but it does not absolve any of us from making really stupid decisions and protect us from the consequences of these stupid decisions.
Try calling a black man, to his face, the “n word,” and then complain after he beat the crap out of you, that you have a Constitutional right of free speech.
Actions/deeds – protected or otherwise – have consequences
Chris, Chris, Chris:
Are you naive or just a fool? Citing The Atlantic Monthly as a reputable source.
Bless your young heart. So much to learn.
“Our Constitution does give us individual freedoms . . . ”
Apologies in advance, however, to be a stickler about the matter “give” isn’t an appropriate formulation. Better, I’d say, “acknowledges” (accepts as a premise) a thing which is already (and always) the case. See: “We hold these truths to be self-evident … etc”
Snow on Pine:
But the Unicorns didn’t share any winning lottery numbers?
The Presence (aka The Man in the Moon) didn’t say “y’all come back now!”
I think the UFO community is hiding the truth. ….
Tommy Jay
Thanks for the technical info. Sometimes the conversations sound like a couple of oenophiles (NTTAWT) arguing and I get lost.
My last pistol familiarity was the Army 45. Loved the grip safety in the handle. You really, really have to want to shoot that thing. Which, I suppose means you can carry it with a round in and the hammer back and be safe.
Military weapons had safeties which could be manipulated by a finger joint moving a quarter of an inch (Garand) or a thumb moving half an inch out of where it would normally be. So forth. But they were on SAFE in pretty much any situation except really, really imminent contact.
A sillivilian wandering around with a lethal weapon ready to go off if the weather changes or something is a really dumb idea. I exaggerate, somewhat.
I wish I could take credit for the line that starts with, ‘I’ve never seen the expression on the face of a vampire confronted by a large silver crucifix, but I have seen the expression on the face of–insert unlucky subject–so I’m close.”
Insert “someone concerned about Pretti who is asked about Babbitt”
Ashli Babbit was less ‘having it coming’ than the other two; she was the only one out of the three who wasn’t carrying any weapons. Don’t give me bullshit about how a car isn’t a weapon—what kills more people per year in America, guns or cars? Even if he was protected by the 2nd Amendment in bringing a gun to a protest, don’t confront police while having a gun on you, period. When your 2nd Amendment crashes with law enforcement enforcing laws, law enforcement’s rights take priority.
People seem to have a problem understanding that in a functioning society, a pecking order of rights matters. We grant law enforcement priority out of respect for the dangerous nature of their job, so we should yield and abide to make their job easier.
If you act like a thug, if you obstruct legal enforcement, then expect to be treated like a thug—like a criminal. If you are perceived as a criminal and act like you are going to put them in danger, they have every right to do whatever is necessary to protect themselves. We, as a society, owe them this much for protecting us and making this society function.
The guy who shot Ashli Babbit could see both her hands. He actually advanced to get closer to her for his shot, and shot her in the neck.
Normally you don’t aim for the neck. Most likely he aimed for her head but jerked the shot low due to poor shooting skills. Maybe he didn’t aim at all. He was very close when he took the shot.
Richard Aubrey, the standard handgun in the US is the Glock these days. It is a striker fired pistol that doesn’t have a manual safety. The trigger is designed so that brushing it won’t cause it to fire.
They are normally carried with a round in the chamber. Many cops carry them, or similar handguns every day in this manner. As do many civilians.
Ashli Babbit was less ‘having it coming’ than the other two; she was the only one out of the three who wasn’t carrying any weapons.
All she did was climb up into a window sill on a door after someone else broke it.
The shooter actually advanced forward for a better shot.
You’re not being a stickler at all sdferr. Important distinction.
… endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…
It’s the American way, and it doesn’t bother me at all that it freaks Europeans out.
I probably won’t watch the video because I don’t care. He should have stayed home. He wasn’t peacefully protesting; he was aggressive. I have no interest in this. It’s sad, but the left has turned me into a noncaring person.
When they win, I say next time. When we win, riots and protests are constant.
Well, well, well.
Now, according to the article linked to below, it turns out that, a week before he was shot and killed, our peaceful Anesthesiologist already had had a run in with ICE officers trying make an arrest, he got tackled, and received a reported broken rib in the scuffle.*
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/bombshell-alex-pretti-broke-rib-attempting-obstruct-immigration/
Cornflour said:
“It’s an odd feeling. If I see a dog hit by a car, I’m filled with pity. If I see a Marxist insurrectionist killed on video, I don’t care. I don’t think this is just about politics anymore.”
Same here. I feel a lot like Rafa? Gan-Ganowicz, the Polish mercenary, author, and journalist, who is famously associated with the statement regarding his actions, when asked how he felt about killing people responded, “I don’t know. I’ve only ever killed communists”
Steve and Cornflour, let me introduce you to a guy I think you’re both going to like. I just learned of him recently. If you’ve seen the movie Oppenheimer, he is the real life character played by the actor Casey Affleck. His name is Boris Pash. I could go on about him, but this article sums him up very nicely. I’ll quote the opening paragraph to whet your appetite, but please, read the whole thing.
https://www.rbth.com/history/332284-russian-daredevil-boris-pash/amp
Both Glock and the Sig in question have a trigger safety. The term Glock leg means someone shot their own leg while re-holstering.
Chases.
Thanks. That’s it. I’m getting a 1911 army type, maybe chambered for 9mm.
I’ve had some major hours of scientific dirty fighting and I usually carry something which is legal and may have practical applications. But…maybe a pistol….
The term Glock leg means someone shot their own leg while re-holstering.
==
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBhUzEsO-Y
The US military and comparable civ variants of the Sig also have a thumb lever type external safety. It is a very versatile and modular design. More of a duty weapon sized piece than concealable.
Chases. Thanks again. At my age and with my build, I often wear baggy outfits so maybe the duty-size would be manageable.
But just for grins when you have time, look up the knife laws in your state.
Even something designed to be hung on a wall could get you into trouble. Possibly even if it’s in the trunk.
My father’s commissioning sword. Did that mean he was Distinguished Grad of his OCS class? Can’t be handing out swords to every new second lieutenant. Not even in the trunk, according to some interpretations.
But a pistol with what amounts to a hair trigger…..
My concealed carry permit expired several years ago and I no longer feel the need to carry. But when I originally got my permit, and when I renewed it five years later, I had to sit through a half-day class on things you should know when carrying a deadly weapon, including “don’t go looking for trouble,” and “if you can avoid using deadly force, do so for the sake of your family and your heirs.” As in, you’re gonna get sued. Big time.
A CCW does not give you permission to go looking for an excuse to use it. Like running across the street and getting between ICE officers and the person they are trying to apprehend. Yes, the Second Amendment acknowledges your right to “keep and bear arms.” Self-preservation (and state law) tells you to be smart about using your firearm.
I used to carry a Walther PPK or a Sig 229 when I was carrying. Neither has a safety, but both have a “decocking” lever that allows you to load a cartridge into the chamber, then “decock” the hammer so the amount of finger pressure needed to fire the pistol is increased significantly. Shooting it becomes more of a conscious effort and muscle memory would tell you something is happening. The Sig Pretti was carrying does not have this feature, so he was carrying a loaded pistol without a safety.
The stop-action video makes it appear very likely Pretti’s pistol was removed from the holster in the small of his back, then the law enforcement officer who removed it turned and stepped away from the physical altercation between his colleagues and Pretti. Just as he was taking that step, and with Pretti’s pistol pointed at the ground, it went off. I don’t know if we will ever know if the officer put his finger on the trigger, but I could believe that is the cause.
In any case, the pistol appears to have discharged. If you look closely at the frame where the officer has swung his arm down alongside his leg (at the 3 second mark), you can see the blur of the action moving and I think the shell casing beginning to eject.
The officers struggling with Pretti could well believe they were under fire and took that as their cue to return fire. Combat veterans will tell you if you can’t see the shooter’s eyes, you’re not the target and Pretti’s eyes were not on the officers. That’s not a perfect rule of thumb, but it’s pretty good. It’s also hard to remember when bullets are flying and your instinct is to get down.
The bottom line is I want to wait for the results of a proper inquest, but I have my own impression of what happened as readers can probably infer.
F.
We were told, for example, never to make eye contact with anybody else while pumping gas [or any other public activity] because that might be the one in a thousand who wants to fight. Then you have to shoot him.
If you think you need a gun to be safe someplace, the smart thing is not to go there. Duh.
The number of examples of things to avoid, sort of normal things, which we were told were risky in terms of carrying a gun was pretty long.
The inability to accept consequences for your own actions is the key.
Richard Aubrey: Our class was told the same things, especially that bit about not going someplace where you think you need a gun to be safe. A CCW is not a permit to go looking for an opportunity to use it. Thanks for including that.