I am a gun owner and have a state issued concealed carry permit. I fully support the right of every American to do the same. In my state, to receive a permit one must first complete an eight-hour training course in gun safety and gun laws. My course was administered by a state policeman who is a qualified range instructor. One of the points of emphasis was that exercising your right to bear arms conveys with it a very serious responsibility. How so?

In the sense that when you are out in public carrying your gun, any confrontation has the potential to become lethal. Of course, most responsible gun owners will live their life without ever firing their weapon at another person. Just as most law enforcement officers serve their entire careers without ever being in a gunfight. But the potential is always there, and one must be aware of it.

This is particularly important when interacting with law enforcement. If you are involved in an altercation with law enforcement and they become aware you are armed, you will be perceived as a threat.

Where am I going with this? We have the Constitutional right to carry a gun. We can do so every day. This includes while also exercising our right to peaceful assembly. The comment that no one carries at a peaceful protest is nonsense. The reality is many could be doing so, and no one should ever know. However, if you are with a group actively trying to impede law enforcement from carrying out their jobs, you have now entered the zone I spoke of earlier. A potentially fatal confrontation, where any action can be taken as threatening.

So yes, Alex Pretti had the right to carry a gun at a protest. The number of extra magazines he had on him is irrelevant. But once involved in what might be construed as obstruction, that gun became a liability. An obstructionist is subject to arrest. An armed obstructionist could get shot. As the saying goes, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

So do I believe the shooting was justified? Not at all. Mr. Pretti was carrying a Sig 320, which studies claim are prone to involuntary discharge. We don’t know yet if that’s what happened. That is for the investigations to decide. If it didn’t, then yes, I am deeply concerned that he might have been on the receiving end of a mag dump after being disarmed.

I hope the investigation is truly impartial. But I doubt it will be accepted as such.