Breitbart News spoke exclusively with Gun Owners of America (GOA) senior vice president Erich Pratt Thursday and he made clear that GOA’s comments on exercising First and Second Amendment rights together were not specific to Alex Pretti.
GOA is staunch defender of Second Amendment rights and has been vocal in support of exercising those rights in the days since Pretti took a gun with him in Minneapolis.
For example, on January 27, 2026–three days after Pretti was killed in a confrontation with federal law enforcement–GOA posted to X: “Peaceful protests while armed isn’t radical—it’s American. The First and Second Amendments protect those rights, and they always have. GOA will hold any administration accountable.”
We talked to Pratt about questions we received from readers, asking if GOA had seen videos of Pretti’s behavior, etc.
We mentioned the latest video that has emerged, wherein Pretti allegedly screams “f**k you” to a federal agent, daring the agent to “assault” him, and appearing to spit on the agent as well. (The video was taken 11 days before Pretti brought a gun with him to a protest and was fatally shot.)
Pratt responded: “We’ve been speaking in principle, that people can exercise their First and Second Amendments together.”
He continued:
There is a long history of exercising these rights together, the Boston Tea Party is a notable example, but even more recently the Deacons for Defense carried guns while they were protesting Civil Rights violations. While they were peaceful, there were some cases where they actually used their firearms to protect themselves against racist individuals who were attacking the peaceful protesters. Their experience shows that Second Amendment rights and peaceful protest are not mutually exclusive.
“In regard to Pretti, we have not addressed his situation at all. We’ve been speaking in principle in contrast to some of the statements that have been made by administration officials who said you can’t exercise your Second Amendment rights at a protes,” Pratt said. “We are saying yes you can, but…you cannot use your freedom to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement activity. That is a no go.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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