You Don’t Get to Fight Anymore: Lessons for Armed Citizens from the Alex Pretti Incident in Minnesota
I wrote You Don’t Get to Fight Anymore last summer as a reminder to armed citizens that carrying a firearm changes the rules. Not legally. Morally. Practically. Permanently.
Today, that lesson feels heavier. These are just some of my thoughts.
An individual appears to hold onto Alex Pretti during a physical confrontation as a federal officer approaches with a firearm drawn during a protest-related incident. The image is taken from video footage documenting the moments leading up to a shooting involving federal authorities.
The country is in the middle of another ugly news cycle. Protests. Federal agents. ICE. Crowds. The tension is so thick that we can feel it in the air. It's nearly unavoidable.
In the metro area of my home state of Minnesota, that tension has spilled into chaos. Words turned into shoves. Shoves turned into gunfire. And now we’re left sorting through footage, statements, outrage, and the narratives moving faster than truth ever does.
In the middle of it all was a man who was legally carrying a concealed firearm.
That matters. Rights matter. I do not minimize that. The right to carry is something I’ve spent years defending, explaining, and encouraging people to take seriously.
But rights do not suspend responsibility.
And carrying a gun does not grant immunity from bad decisions.
The Noise vs. The Reality
There has been a lot of noise around this incident. Political noise. Performative outrage. Sensational headlines about spare magazines, as if carrying reloads is somehow exotic or sinister. Anyone who actually carries knows better. A spare mag is normal. It’s boring. It’s EDC.
That part of the conversation is a distraction.
The harder conversation is this: you can be legally armed and still be catastrophically wrong in your decision making.
From the video evidence available, I do not see a clean, defensible shoot. That’s my opinion, and I’ll say it plainly without pretending it’s anything more. Reasonable people can disagree. Courts will do what courts do.
But step back from the legal parsing for a moment.
I see the failures happening before any trigger press.
Carrying Is Not Fighting
Protesting is not fighting.
Shouting is not fighting.
Even being angry is not fighting.
But the moment you choose to physically engage while armed, you have crossed a line that is very difficult to uncross.
You brought a gun into a conflict you chose to stay in.
That is the part that too many people want to skip over.
You can carry while you protest. You have that right. But protesting is an act of expression, not an invitation to physical confrontation. When you allow ego, adrenaline, or tribal loyalty to pull you into hands-on conflict, you are no longer just a protester. You are an armed participant in chaos.
And once you do that, the consequences are no longer hypothetical.
The Lesson Still Stands
When you carry a firearm, you do not get to fight anymore unless you truly believe the situation has reached the threshold of life or death.
Not “I’m mad.”
Not “he touched me.”
Not “they disrespected me.”
Life or death.
That threshold is high. It has to be.
In this case, the decisions leading up to the shooting mattered more than the shooting itself. The choice to remain engaged. The choice to escalate instead of disengage. The choice to bring a lethal tool into a space where emotions were already unstable.
None of that erases rights. But it absolutely shapes outcomes.
This Is the Part Nobody Likes
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that gets lost when politics takes over.
You can be legally correct and still ruin your life.
You can be morally convinced and still be wrong.
You can believe you were justified and still spend years paying for a moment you could have avoided.
Carrying a gun demands restraint that most people never practice. It demands humility in situations where pride is begging for the wheel. It requires you to walk away from things that feel unfair, insulting, or enraging.
That doesn’t make you weak.
A Message to Armed Citizens Right Now
If you carry a firearm in this climate, understand this clearly.
Crowds are not your arena.
Protests are not your proving ground.
Chaos is not your moment.
Your job is to avoid, not engage.
To leave, not linger.
To de-escalate, not posture.
If you feel yourself getting pulled into the emotional gravity of a situation, that is your signal to disengage immediately. Distance is your friend. Silence is your ally. Walking away is strength.
Because once you carry, every bad decision weighs more.
And once you cross from presence into participation, you own what comes next.
Final Thought
I don’t write this to condemn. I write it to warn.
The Second Amendment is not fragile. It does not need reckless defenders. It needs disciplined ones.
If you choose to carry a firearm, you are choosing to be held to a higher standard, whether the world acknowledges it or not.
You don’t get to fight anymore. (Until it's the ONLY option)
Not at protests.
Not in crowds.
Not in moments fueled by anger or ideology.
You carry so you can go home.
Everything else is noise.
Mitch, Thank you for expressing succinctly a dialogue my girlfriend and I have been having since the Pretti killing. You and she made better sense of the situation than I have, until now. Be well! Michael
I appreciate that Michael. Thank you for taking the time to read!
I had a similar conversation about the mindset required to CCW with a colleague just this morning. This is very well written – I’d love to share it on FB. Is there a way to?
This is one of the most mature responses to logic I’ve seen so far coming from this tragedy. Good for you for accepting new information and changing your view accordingly. That is emotional intelligence.
Great article Mitch!
Thank you for reading!
Great article and reminder that carrying is a responsibility we cannot take lightly.
Awesome article! Thank you for that perspective
So well written!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Clarity needed in these times but will not received or reported enough. A Shamful time in America; the division and control to mislead. I am I am a senior, Vet, and joined the NRA at 12 when I asked my Navy vet Father to get a BB Gun…His quick retort was “Hell NO! Thats dangerous. I ‘ll take you to the town (NRA) gun club to learn about guns.” We went, and I joined and learned Respect and compeated for yrs.. Now as a senior, I can hardly afford to own, let alone carry with its costs. I cringe at the media reports of current times and conflicts…SAD. BUT am so happy to read your artical of COMMON SENCE about the need to balance Rights, of anything, with RESPONSIBILITY!!! There are consequences to be faced and pay!! THANK YOU for your thoughtful, insightful writing. Unfortunitaly it will not be acepted or even read by those needing to consider and be aware of your perspective. NEED to try.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Excellent thought process and expression.
So many folks need this information or reminder. Whichever the case.
Thank you.
Mitch, often common sense isn’t common. It’s easy to make judgement calls when you focus solely on one position, one perspective, one narrative, one right, but when temperatures rise, emotions and dogma prevails. Personal accountability and choices are never discussed. Your article reminds us that choices have consequences and we control our choices including our responses. Very well written Mitch.
Thanks for a great article that clearly lays out the gravity of carrying concealed in this day and age.
Mitch you are right on her.e One can be completely right, totally righteous and still be unfortunately, dead. I’m not picking sides, especially in a situation I didn’t see firsthand. Another example would be, someone on a crosswalk, crossing with the light. If a car goes through illegally, you die. You were totally in the right, but unfortunately, dead. My prayer is for cooler heads to prevail, politicians to quit playing with our emotions and the rule of law prevail.
Absolutely spot on! Since I began carrying a weapon I have learned to avoid places and situations that could could lead to conflict.
But you have stated how to carry in a way that we all must always remember.
Perfect analysis.
Very well spoken sir! Any time I have tried to make this point I have been labeled as a right winger justifying murder. His death was a tragedy but a preventable one-lesson one in my ccw class was if you choose to carry you have to remove yourself from conflict at all costs and definitely don’t walk towards it.
This seems totally directed at civilians. What about law enforcement? What rules restrain their behavior.
I said, “From the video evidence available, I do not see a clean, defensible shoot. That’s my opinion, and I’ll say it plainly without pretending it’s anything more. Reasonable people can disagree. Courts will do what courts do.”
I would hope that Law Enforcement officers carry the same personal responsibility.
I’m an armed civilian, I am simply looking at a tragedy and taking away lessons from it. These are lessons of personal responsibility, not a legal analysis or venting my outrage with a government that I don’t trust. There is plenty of outrage for you to consume out there. I’m not attempting to feed that fire.
A great article about the teachings that every conceal carry student should have absorbed!!!!
The understanding of the conceal carry privilege in our state of MN, was put under attack by Alex Pretti with his displayed actions. I have maintained throughout most of my adult life, that life is about decisions and choices! Many bad ones were on display whatever video you have watched. His biggest being not leaving the firearm at home on his fateful day.
Definitely do not condone the end result but it comes back to decisions and choices. Your article was very well written. Thank You.
Thanks for writing this. This is exactly why we used to have firearms training for most all americnans…in school, scouts, family or church. Gun education would reduce the number of gun deaths. But conflict avoidance and responsibility for one’s actions would stop much of the violence. Great article, thanks for taking the time.
So I don’t disagree with your premise but wonder how would you apply those same responsibilities to law enforcement?
Since they are armed, do they share the same responsibility to deescalate, to disengage from confrontation?
I’m sure putting up with protestors is no fun for them but many of the videos we’ve seen it is ICE who initiates the physical altercation or carries it beyond what was necessary to ensure their safety.
Everything I talk about here is personal responsibility, so I would hope that LEOs and Federal Agents would embrace the same personal responsibility.
Well said, thank you. It would be nice to get rid of “stupid,” but, I’m sorry to say, it’s here to stay. Been around forever! I can remember be “stupid” when I was much younger. But most of us had respect and discipline, definitely respected life. Some just get tangled up, sad to say. Even more sad this time because, as a Veteran he should know these things.
I agree completely with the sentiment, though I think it’s interesting this is emphasized now, when it involves an armed citizen against agents of the state. The responsibility to de-escalate should always exist. I am thinking of stand-your-ground laws. The Trayvon Martin case strikes me as an example of an instance where an armed citizen started an altercation, and then ended it.