The National Rifle Association (NRA) criticized comments by a senior federal prosecutor warning that approaching law enforcement with a gun could justify a fatal police response, saying such statements risk “demonizing law‑abiding citizens” as the nation reels from the killing of a man in Minneapolis by a U.S. border agent.
The NRA was responding to remarks by Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, who said that “if you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you,” adding, “Don’t do it.”
In a statement, the gun‑rights group called that view “dangerous and wrong,” urging public officials to refrain from broad generalizations and to wait for the outcome of a full investigation into Alex Pretti’s death.
For myself, I think the NRA is both culturally irrelevant AND completely fucking complicit in ALL of this.
Every word you write is true.
That said, to answer your question, the NRA is shitting itself because if gun ownership – or any facet thereof, like open carry – becomes illegal in the US that’s very bad for the NRA, and possibly the abrupt end of the gravy train for them if the rights of 2A suddenly become as irrelevant as, say, the rights of 4A.
This statement is nothing more than spin because even the execs counting the right-wing cash can see that this was murder and not even remotely any legitimate act of law enforcement. They just don’t want to be on the receiving end of growing public anger.