In my view, Alex Pretti should not have brought a gun to a protest.
But if you disagree and believe Pretti was well within his right to bring a loaded concealed firearm to that fateful protest in Minneapolis where he was killed by ICE agents, then do you also think that the January 6th insurrectionists also had a right to carry their weapons to the Capitol?
You might think that on an issue like guns on which people have such strongly held beliefs, who was exercising the right wouldn’t matter. Either you had a right to carry around a loaded gun or you didn’t.
But in a recent Marquette poll of Wisconsin voters, when asked if Pretti had a constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon at a protest, only 56% of Republicans said he had that right while 88% of Democrats said he did.
Now, the truth is Pretti did have the legal right to carry his gun and, depending on where the January 6th protesters were in relation to firearms-free zones around the Capitol, some of them may have had the right as well. What the Marquette poll was really asking wasn’t about the technical legal question, but about the advisability of carrying a gun in a given situation.
But just a few months ago, when the same pollsters asked whether people approved of having concealed carry in the state as a general principle, 92% of Republicans said yes, as did 59% of Democrats.
Let me digress right here and express alarm that 59% of even Democrats now support concealed carry. As a gun owner myself I think wanting to carry one in public is just paranoid and bat shit crazy. Nobody who’s not a cop should be carrying around a loaded firearm in public, concealed or not. End of digression.
So, when you ask Republicans if they believe in the right to concealed carry in general 92% say ‘yes.’ But when you ask them if an ICE protester should be allowed to have one, that plummets to 56%. Now, you might say that their objection was to anybody carrying a gun to a highly charged protest. So what do you suppose those same Republicans would say about all the guns at the January 6th insurrection?
And, of course, the same goes for the Democrats. Some 59% of them support concealed carry generally (and I still can’t get over that), but when it comes to Pretti, 88% supported his right to carry a gun. And, again, ask those same Democrats about January 6th protesters’ right to carry a gun and I’ll bet you’d get a different response.
These responses speak volumes about our current predicament. There is so little in the way of dispassionate analysis or holding to the idea of consistency. If somebody in your tribe does it, it’s okay. If the other team does the very same thing, it’s wrong.
One of the points in YSDA’s Principles of Moderation is anti-tribalism. We’ll evaluate issues based on facts and reason. Who supports or opposes something isn’t especially relevant to an argument. But we’re a lonely outpost for that idea. The notion of impartiality — being willing to criticize your side when their arguments don’t add up or giving credit to the other guys when they make sense — has pretty much gone by the wayside now.
“This is really a perfect example that what we think are deeply held, rooted beliefs can move like that when your favorite leader takes an opposite position, or you think your side is advantaged by switching its position in a particular circumstance,” said Charles Franklin who directs the poll.
Agree with me or not on the gun issue, but I hope you will agree with me on the broader point. Our friends aren’t always right. Those we usually oppose aren’t always wrong. What should matter is the quality of their arguments. Facts, reason and consistency should matter. Tribalism is a disease.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
“Who supports or opposes something isn’t especially relevant to an argument.”
Ha ha ha ha you do realize you do this all the time? You will quote someone and also conveniently tell us if they are (far) left or right or a moderate. I’m reminded of the aphorism sometimes attributed to Kierkegaard “When you label me you negate me”.
We are all tribal. It is part of human nature which means there was an evolutionary advantage to it. I’m not saying we should just run with it. No doubt there are pathologies associated with it as well.
Irrational behavior isn’t going anywhere the best we can do is attempt to steer it. Having a Devil’s Advocate or “Red Team” is a good start. Democrats could have used this when they decided to coronate Kamala.
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I agree that tribalism is out of hand and clouds our vision. One slight counter, to the Marquette poll observation. The question asked was “Do you think Alex Pretti had a constitutional right to have a gun with him when protesting against immigration agents or should it be illegal to possess a gun at a protest?” That is an oddly worded question, in that one answer is pretty objective and the other is subjective. Pretti did in fact have a constitutional right (as constrained by MN law) to have a gun at that specific protest, whether or not it should be legal is a separate question. It really should have been two separate questions. Marquette then paired the result with their previous subjective question from October over whether one “supports concealed carry” as a concept.
In other words, I think it is consistent to answer that he had a constitutional right in that specific instance, but also not agree with concealed carry as a concept. I am sure tribalism is playing a role, but I think the question was worded poorly.
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It is definitely fair to say that he shouldn’t have brought a gun to the protest, just as the J6 folks shouldn’t have brought guns either. That being said, parsing intentionality is a difficult if not impossible task though to compare the two. I’m having a tough time comparing someone bringing a gun to a protest on a city street and someone bringing a gun onto Federal grounds and/or around government buildings. Just as a hypothetical, on the level of “it’s a constitutional right,” who brings a gun to (or around) a Federal building to protect themselves? And to be clear, surely we’re not comparing Pretti to any J6 people milling about way away from the action who may have had a firearm on them.
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