Pretti’s death is exposing Florida GOP hypocrisy on the Second Amendment | Opinion

I come from a long line of responsible gun owners and used to have a concealed firearm permit. I believe in the Second Amendment and the constitutional right to bear arms. Until this past weekend, I thought Florida Republicans did, too.

Florida has been nicknamed the “Gunshine State,” in part because of its friendly laws toward gun owners and the gun lobby. Republican legislators in Tallahassee have consistently fought against restrictions and promised to protect law-abiding citizens’ right to keep and bear arms.

But now Florida Republicans have (mostly) gone silent.

On Saturday in Minneapolis, 37-year-old ICU nurse and United States citizen Alex Pretti was killed during a protest while lawfully carrying a firearm.

Video footage obtained reviewed by the New York Times, shows Pretti standing between what are believed to be federal agents and another protester who had been shoved to the ground. An agent began to pepper spray Pretti, who is seen with his phone in one hand and his other hand raised. Several agents wrestled Pretti to the ground, where one agent discovered a gun on Pretti’s waist, removed it and stepped away. Seconds later, another agent fires. Within five seconds, 10 shots are fired, killing Pretti.

By all available accounts, Pretti seems to exemplify what Florida Republicans claim to support: the right of a responsible gun owner without a criminal record to carry a firearm.

This should be a defining moment for every Florida Republican who has ever invoked the Second Amendment. A lawful gun owner exercising his First Amendment right by attending a protest and filming it was killed by federal agents. And yet, most Florida Republican elected officials have remained silent.

One exception has been state Sen. Ileana Garcia from Miami. In a post on X, Garcia condemned the shooting, posting that Petti was a U.S. citizen and a permit holder who didn’t draw his weapon or attack agents, and that ICE removed his weapon before shooting him. “Distorting, politicizing, slandering — justifying what happened to Alex Pretti contradicts the American values the administration campaigned on,” she posted.

She added: “This is not what I voted for!” Republicans have long treated defending the Second Amendment as nonnegotiable.

Those who want to justify the actions of the agents will insist that Pretti was interfering with a federal law enforcement operation. They’ll say he was an insurrectionist or that this was about maintaining law and order, not gun rights.

But that’s not what the video shows us. It looks to me — and many others in this country — that a law-abiding citizen with a license to carry was killed by the federal government for being present at a protest — after his weapon was secured. If that’s the case, then the Second Amendment is no longer a right. It’s become a privilege, rescinded whenever the government deems it inconvenient.

U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, has long supported the Second Amendment and was endorsed by the National Rifle Association during his 2024 race for State Senate. And yet, after the shooting, Fine praised law enforcement on X, and labeled Pretti “an armed seditionist” who “was put down.”

But I don’t see any evidence of that. It looks as though the only thing Pretti was brandishing was his cellphone. I think they panicked and shot him. The NRA and other pro-gun organizations are right to demand a full investigation. Either the GOP believes in the Second Amendment for all law-abiding citizens, or it doesn’t believe in it at all.

Florida gun owners know if it can happen to Pretti, it can happen to anyone. Conservatism is rooted in limiting government power and protecting individual liberty. Those principles matter most when they are tested. If Florida Republicans won’t defend the Second Amendment when it’s tested, they never believed in it at all.

I was taught to respect both firearms and the Constitution. The question is: Were the rest of the Republicans in Florida?

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com