In a heated interview with CNN‘s Dana Bash on Sunday, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said his agents were the real “victims” in the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protestor.
Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs nurse, was killed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday. In videos of the deadly altercation between Pretti and several agents, he can be seen placing himself between an agent and several women that he was shoving. Pretti is sprayed with a chemical irritant and then wrestled to the ground, where one agent repeatedly hit him in the head with the irritant’s metal canister. Pretti, who was legally carrying a firearm, was fatally shot by agents while on the ground.
DHS immediately painted Pretti as a threat, saying that officers feared for their lives because Pretti was legally carrying a firearm. Multiple videos of the shooting contradicted the official line that Pretti was threatening agents. On Sunday, Bash pressed Bovino for evidence “that he was intending to massacre law enforcement.”
When Bash repeatedly asserted Pretti’s right to carry his firearm, Bovino made the bold claim that Pretti forfeited his Second Amendment rights via his actions.
Weird thing is this is the “government takeover” the 2nd amendment nuts have been screaming about for generations. Not at all surprised that they’re mostly silent now. Also not at all surprised it their own political party who’s doing this.
I keep seeing this take and it’s half thought out at best. First of all, I don’t think it’s true. There are plenty of armed citizens not sympathetic to ICE in any way. They are reasonable adults who have not felt it necessary up to this point to engage in a last resort effort that is likely to endanger tens of thousands of people at minimum. You may think we are already past that point, and we may well be, but you can’t deny that wanting to be sure it is necessary before taking up arms against their countrymen is exactly what a reasonable adult with a firearm should do.
Second, if what you are saying is true and there are no reasonable citizens with guns then the logical course of action is to buy a gun, organize in your community, and practice your 2nd Amendment rights as you see fit. They don’t just apply to conservatives despite what Bovino is trying to argue. Complaining about the past isn’t going to change the future so if you see a gap, fill it.
Now I don’t know if you’re American or not but I do see this sentiment from Americans on a regular basis and that is who am I addressing.
I don’t think they meant “all gun owning citizens” when they said “2nd amendment nuts”. I think they were talking about a particular type of person who bases their whole identity around owning guns to fight against the government.
I don’t think he’s saying the second amendment tells you use your guns to shoot people when there is anything you consider tyrannical government oppression, only that having the guns are supposed to preempt that problem in theory — and the theory is clearly invalidated.
The fact that traditional second amendment proponents (the NRA) have backed away from that theory and now side with the proto fascist tyrannical government demonstrates the argument was always bankrupt and was never a principle in practice.
That said — you correctly point out that there still room for people to actually start using said guns for shooting, which is indeed the logical next step. Putin is shitting himself laughing.
Fire extinguishers don’t ward off fires. You need to actually use them after the fire has started. The same goes with firearms and tyranny. They don’t prevent it, but they can be used against it.
Weird thing is this is the “government takeover” the 2nd amendment nuts have been screaming about for generations.
No no no. You’re thinking of the Civil Rights Act. That’s what they were complaining about.
These people have been led around by the nose their whole lives. The same people who have been shouting this nonsense at the 2nd losers are the ones who were inevitably going to pull this.
Cf Reagan and California’s gun control laws.
The fascist will say anything, regardless of reality, logic, or even internal consistency, to advance his self interested power grab and all of the violence it requires. He has no moral code and no allegiance to law. He cannot be reasoned with doesn’t deserve that kind of deference. Once he achieves control, he cannot be voted out of power.
Wielding postmodernism as a weapon; the only truth to them is their truth. Fucking psychopaths.
… which is why they love religion so much
Objective provable reality is secondary to “Belief” … “Faith” … “I feel it”
OC
There was a lot more than just the 2nd amendment right that was being violated there.
Something, something, inalienable rights, something, something, life, liberty…
This guy certainly is embracing the nazi lifestyle, he ever gonna face consequences?
Quite a number of Nazis escaped prosecution. They had to be tracked down over half a century, and still a lot escaped entirely.
Quite a few German Nazis were employed by the US Government after the war:
Operation Paperclip generally targeted people with an IQ above room temperature. No one in this administration would qualify.
We’ll have to try harder this time I guess
His own personal Tyler is out there, I suspect.
Land of the free… because of the brave
I hate that fucking smug face, where is a Lugi when one is needed.
ICE agents carry weapons and citizens fear for their lives… so by their standards…
Cool. Do I get to decide which rights apply to Bovino and his bullshit army now? What he’s doing doesn’t sound much like “…support[ing] and defend[ing] the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” or “…bear[ing] true faith and allegiance to the same…” so his actions ought to have consequences too.
Before the reply: No, I will not elaborate, fed.
“Rights aren’t rights if they can be taken away. They’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country: A bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news, even badly you know that the list gets shorter and shorter” - George Carlin
You fucking Nazis are not granting us our rights…you work for us fuck head
This administration is playing with fire by trying to blame this on the gun that the man was legally carrying and licensed to own.
The 2A people in MAGA are not happy, there’s a little civil war brewing in r/conservative between the bots and the 2A supporters.
2A nuts are showing themselves as the hypocrites the rest of us already knew they were.
Actually… Bovino is sending out a dog whistle to the real 2A nuts
Bovino gonna get hisself Kirk’ed
rights are a convenient fiction from the enlightenment era, when the Europeans were trying to atomize and analyze freedom.
you’re free to carry a weapon.
Does the word “martinet” have any meaning to anyone here?
I have nothing to lose. I’m just waiting.
…it feels like being very hungry.
I’m just waiting.
What are you waiting for?
To be ready for my own death. Survival instint is very real even when in this bullshit it feels wrong to knowing do some that will end your life.
