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The man killed by a federal agent on Saturday in Minneapolis — 37-year-old Alex Pretti — was a legal gun owner who had a permit to carry a firearm. 

The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed that Pretti posed a threat to officers because he was armed. However, video from the incident doesn’t show Pretti pointing the gun at agents during the confrontation.

Rob Doar is president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center and general counsel for Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. He spoke with MPR News on Saturday and said he noticed what he called “suspiciously caged language” in the initial statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

“The first language that I saw in the DHS statement was that Mr. Pretti approached them with a firearm — and that gave me pause, because it doesn’t say that he had a firearm pointed at them or anything like that,” Doar said. “So my initial reaction is, ‘Well, you know, how did you know he had a firearm at that point?’ And as we see more video, it makes it clear that the firearm wasn’t really visible at all until after a confrontation and a scuffle, and he was disarmed prior to being shot.”

Doar also noted that “permit to carry holders, they’re allowed to carry in public. ...There’s nothing inherently criminal about that activity. You also don’t have to choose between exercising your First Amendment rights or your Second Amendment rights.”

Doar said it’s important to calm the ongoing rhetoric around the federal operation in Minnesota and protests in response, with joint responsibility for people on both sides. But he added that “becomes more difficult when our government and agents of our government are not engaging in good faith with what we’re seeing with our own eyes.”

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The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti

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“Permit to carry holders, they’re allowed to carry in public. ...There’s nothing inherently criminal about that activity. You also don’t have to choose between exercising your First Amendment rights or your Second Amendment rights,” said Rob Doar with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.

Gun owners advocate responds to discrepancy between shooting video, federal statements

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