Years ago, stopping in Olympia for dinner, my son drove past the Capitol where a protest against proposed gun legislation had taken place. As I sat in the passenger seat, I glanced toward the sidewalk on my right where a young man walked with what appeared to be an Uzi in his hands.
Of course, I strained my neck to look as my grown son and daughter admonished me to stop staring and look ahead.
But wow, a guy walking down the street with an Uzi. And on the other side of the street, more people left carrying rifles, shotguns and handguns.
They had been at a protest, rallying in support of the Second Amendment — the right to bear arms.
But now, after watching the acrobatics of conservatives attempting to justify the cold-blooded execution of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday morning in Minneapolis, I realize police would have been justified — according to their reasoning — in killing every one of those armed men gathered at the state Capitol for a rally. After all, they carried guns at a protest. That makes them fair game for execution, according to conservative reasoning.
Do you realize how absolutely asinine that sounds? Because it is.
Pretti, who was filming protests against federal Customs and Border Patrol agents, never once touched the gun he carried legally as someone with a concealed carry permit. In fact, he tried to help a woman violently shoved to the ground by an agent and pepper-sprayed. As he helped her to her feet, agents tackled him to the ground, pummeled him and then shot him at point-blank range after an officer had removed his untouched firearm.
Video shows it all, but people brainwashed to believe what lying leaders tell them will argue that Pretti deserved to die because he was at a protest. Absurd. Video shows what happened, but they’d rather swallow lies fed to them by their cult leader than watch the video and see for themselves that Pretti never touched his gun. He never posed a physical threat to anyone. In fact, a half dozen men shoved him to the ground, pounded on him and then decided to fire nearly a dozen gunshots into him.
Responsible gun ownership? I think not.
I’ve always respected law enforcement, but I abhor bullies — on the playground, in the workplace, among presidents and within law enforcement.
I believe in the First Amendment — the right to free speech and peaceable protests — as well as the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. Pretti exercised both rights on Saturday morning. But I’ve seen conservatives on my Facebook feed say he shouldn’t have been at the protest — especially carrying a weapon — as if that somehow justifies his government-sanctioned execution.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a decorated aviator and son of two police officers who served in the United States Navy from 1986 to 2011, exercised his First Amendment rights when he and other Democratic congressional lawmakers recorded a video telling members of the military they are required to obey and follow only lawful orders. That’s a no-brainer.
But now Secretary of War (we are no longer a nation of Defense but one of aggressive War) Pete Hegseth is trying to reduce Kelly’s rank and retirement pay — rank and pay he earned as an astronaut and an aviator in combat service to this nation! That’s obscene — retaliating against a military member who simply expressed his First Amendment rights. Despicable.
And before the death of Pretti, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7, 2026, as she was leaving in her vehicle. At the time, some conservatives on my Facebook feed bent over backward insisting she mowed down an ICE agent so deserved to be shot and killed. ICE agents prevented a doctor from giving aid, although her pulse continued to beat. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide.
What’s appalling is the hypocrisy of those who call the shooting of Good justified because she was breaking the law by trying to leave the scene and hit an officer.
But many of those same people condemned the shooting death of 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt by a U.S. Capitol Police officer on Jan. 6, 2021, when she joined a mob of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol and, despite warnings, tried to climb through a shattered window near a barricaded door. The mob attempting to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election injured 140 police officers. They broke windows. They vandalized congressional offices. And yet many Republicans applauded when President Donald Trump pardoned all of them for their violent and lawless behavior.
Hypocrisy? Absolutely.
What more did we expect when people elected a bully to the White House? Now we have attacked Venezuela, threatened military action against Greenland, and repeatedly alienated and threatened our neighbors to the north in Canada.
Did we have much of a choice in the election? Former President Joe Biden never should have sought another term, which would have given Democrats an opportunity to hold primaries, debates and elect a strong candidate. And Republicans could have elected a person of character who possessed conservative principles but instead of rallying around a bully-in-chief. Now, American citizens are paying the price.
But it’s OK, some conservatives say. They’re going after immigrants. People of color. Democrats. Lesbians.
Now we have a second state-sanctioned execution of a U.S. citizen on Minnesota streets. Those who blame the victim and laud the president and his administration need to stop calling themselves pro-life. They may be pro-unborn babies, but they’re far from pro-life. Just ask Renee Good. Or Alex Pretti. Oh, that’s right — you can’t. They’re dead. Forever 37.
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Julie McDonald, a student of history appalled at what is happening in this once-proud nation, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
