Opinion: You Can Legally Carry a Gun Around the Police, But Don't Forget to Pack Some Common Sense
Over the weekend, a man named Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents while armed in Minneapolis.
The incident has sparked predictable reactions. Some have rushed to condemn the officers.
Others have rushed to defend them. Still others have focused their outrage entirely on Pretti, who appeared to have been lawfully carrying a weapon.
We don’t have all the facts about the incident yet, other than that Pretti’s death almost certainly could have been avoided by him.
That’s because the reality is that exercising a constitutional right does not suspend common sense, especially when firearms and law enforcement are involved.
Would an intelligent person exercise their First Amendment right to insult 10 strangers in an alleyway at midnight?
They could, but why would anyone who is not a glutton for punishment do that?
Gun owners are not immune to placing themselves in dangerous situations, even when acting within the confines of the law.
I say that as a millennial father who has carried a firearm legally on a daily basis for over a decade, and has fired them since childhood.
Ironically, I began carrying after having a gun pointed at me. About 10 years ago, during a public Fourth of July gathering, a man who was either an illegal alien or whom I reasonably believed to be one became aggressive after I very respectfully asked him to stop throwing fireworks toward my children.
The next thing I knew, he had a .45 pointed at my head, and he kept it there for what felt like hours.
The following business day, I signed up for a concealed carry class. I took the course, passed the test, and began carrying.
Good firearms training teaches more than marksmanship.
It teaches restraint, awareness, and how to avoid escalating situations that do not need to turn deadly.
I live in a Second Amendment-friendly state and have had numerous interactions with police officers while armed. One from last January stands out.
I was pulled over for speeding shortly after a speed limit change in my city. I maintain I was barely over, but the ticket said otherwise, and my wallet ended up $150 lighter.
What mattered was how the stop was handled. I rolled my windows down so the officer could see inside the vehicle. I had my registration and insurance ready in my right hand. Both hands were visible and resting on the door.
I calmly informed him that I was armed and that there was a 9mm handgun with a loaded 16-round magazine in the glove compartment.
He thanked me for letting him know and expressed appreciation for responsible citizens exercising their rights. I am paraphrasing, but the tone was respectful and professional.
We both walked away alive. The officer went back to work. I went home irritated about the ticket, but grateful the interaction was calm and uneventful.
I did not apologize for carrying. I did not reach for the weapon. I did not brandish it. I did not behave erratically or attempt to make a point.
These kinds of interactions happen every day when adults act like adults.
Police officers never know what they are walking into on any given stop or interaction, and I know that.
Many of them at DHS have been shot, attacked, or ambushed in recent weeks and months.
That reality does not disappear because someone such as Pretti is technically within their rights.
An armed society can be a polite society, but only when it is guided by judgment. Personally, I have no interest in playing internet games or pushing the envelope like so-called Second Amendment auditors or like left-wing agitators.
I carry a gun because I want it there if I truly need it, not because I am looking for a confrontation or a tragic miscommunication.
Applying common sense is not surrendering to power. It is about survival.
Our right to carry does not override outside human instinct, and exercising restraint is often the best way to ensure everyone goes home at the end of the day.
Sometimes, restraint is not carrying your gun to a tinder box that could become a riot at any second.
The left is, for the moment, embracing gun rights.
But those rights do not make them bulletproof, and they do not override human instinct for survival in a dangerous moment.
If the left wants to embrace all of their rights, then more power to them.
If they want to keep exercising those rights tomorrow, using common sense today is nonnegotiable.
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