TALLAHASSEE—Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) countered anti-gun narratives surrounding the circumstances of Alex Pretty's death at the hands of an ICE agent during a recent press conference in the state capitol. Rep. Donalds said that the issue was not Pretti's carrying of a firearm, but what he allegedly sought to do with it.
Pretti was a legally-registered owner of a handgun, which he had on his person at the time of the shooting,. In addition, Pretti had two fully-loaded magazines as the confrontation had turned physical. It remains unclear if he drew the weapon intending to shoot the ICE agents, but the fact that he had it in the first place has sparked debate on carrying concealed firearms to protests.
Rep. Donalds prefaced his comments by saying he had grown up in Brooklyn, New York, where "my mom told me, 'you engage with law enforcement, it is yes sir, no sir. Yes ma'am, no ma'am.'
'They give you an order, and you follow it. You do not forcefully engage law enforcement, especially when they are in the middle of trying to do their duty, because you have now put yourself, quite frankly, at the mercy of law enforcement," added Donalds. "Let's not suspend belief that just because you are an adult and not use the Second Amendment as cover. That is not what it is at all."
He continued, "It is not about the firearm. It is not even about the citizen carrying the firearm. It is about the citizen deciding they are going to impede law enforcement. That is when the entire situation changes."
Donalds previously told The Floridian that he would have acted the same way as the ICE agent who shot Renee Good, the woman who attempted to run the agent over in a previous confrontation earlier in January.
"Law enforcement has a duty to defend themselves. If I was in that officer’s position, I would have done the same thing," Donalds said..
