Most NJ gun rights groups silent in the wake of Minneapolis shooting

🔴 Fatal Border Patrol shooting sparks fierce debate over guns at protests.

🔴 Bystander video appears to contradict claims that Alex Pretti brandished a weapon.

🔴 New Jersey gun rights advocates weigh in as scrutiny grows.

New Jersey gun owners and libertarians are weighing in after Alex Pretti was shot to death by Border Patrol agents on Saturday in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Since Pretti's killing, a firestorm of debate has erupted over funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and whether Americans should expect to be shot if they bring a firearm to a protest.

On Tuesday, President Trump said to reporters, "You can't have guns" at protests. His words sparked fierce backlash from gun rights activists. But Trump's press secretary gave a different impression.

“The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt qualified that “when you are bearing arms and confronted by law enforcement, you are raising… the risk of force being used against you.”

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New Jersey 101.5 reached out to several pro-gun groups for reaction. New Jersey Second Amendment Society President Alex Roubian said they declined to comment until the investigation into Petti's death was complete. No response was received from the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, and the New Jersey Firearm Owners Syndicate.

Videos contradict early statements from Trump administration

Within hours of Pretti’s death on Saturday, Bovino suggested Pretti “wanted to … massacre law enforcement,” and Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon and acted “violently” toward officers.

“I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” Noem said.

Bystander videos contradicted each claim, instead showing Pretti holding a cellphone and helping a woman who had been pepper sprayed by a federal officer. Within seconds, Pretti was sprayed, too, and taken to the ground by multiple officers.

No video disclosed thus far has shown him unholstering his concealed weapon, which he had a Minnesota permit to carry. It appeared that one officer took Pretti’s gun and walked away with it just before shots began.

New Jersey Second Amendment "purist" defends Alex Pretti's right to carry

Daniel Francisco is the Englishtown mayor; he's also a proud gun rights activist. The mayor is currently involved in three Second Amendment lawsuits, including one to restore New Jersey residents' right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Francisco said that, while he has no insight into whether Petti assaulted a law enforcement officer, the Minnesotan had every right to carry a gun. Petti shouldn't have been harmed for going to a protest while armed, according to the Republican mayor.

"I am seeing Republican or right-wing groups incorrectly attacking him, saying he shouldn't have been carrying, he shouldn't have been doing this. That's his innate right as an American," Francisco said. The Second Amendment "purist" said that someone being in the presence of a police officer or federal agency should not restrict their right to self-defense.

He also criticized "duplicitous" New Jersey Democrats who are now defending Petti's right to carry after passing laws to ban firearms from "sensitive" places, including public gatherings. A federal appeals court upheld that law in a September 2025 decision.

New Jersey Libertarian Party calls for the abolition of ICE

The New Jersey Libertarian Party is now calling for the immediate abolition of ICE, along with the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons. The efforts of immigration enforcement have created an American police state, said party Chair Bruno Pereira in a statement.

"This is blatant and definitional authoritarianism, which we deny completely. No imagined threats from foreigners, nor the promise of financial gain justifies what is happening in our country," Pereira said.

Former party Chair Vic Kaplan ran for governor in November's elections and received 11,880 votes, or around 0.36% of the vote.

READ MORE: ICE arrests in New Jersey fuel fierce immigration debate

Swift national reactions from gun rights advocates

The National Rifle Association, which has backed Trump three times, released a statement that began by casting blame on Minnesota Democrats it accused of stoking protests. But the group lashed out after a federal prosecutor in California said on X that, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”

That analysis, the NRA said, is “dangerous and wrong.”

FBI Director Kash Patel magnified the blowback Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.” No one, Patel said, can “bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”

READ MORE: NJ leaders unite against ICE's immigration tactics

Erich Pratt, vice president of Gun Owners of America, was incredulous.

“I have attended protest rallies while armed, and no one got injured,” he said on CNN.

Conservative officials around the country made the same connection between the First and Second amendments.

“Showing up at a protest is very American. Showing up with a weapon is very American,” state Rep. Jeremy Faison, who leads the GOP caucus in Tennessee, said on X.

Trump's first-term vice president, Mike Pence, called for “full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting.”

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