Have conservatives actually been arming themselves to align with the govt. against the people?

[bigtree]

Last edited Mon Jan 26, 2026, 04:42 PM - Edit history (4)

...was their political cottage industry claiming to be arming themselves against an oppressive government just a ruse for arming themselves against people in this country they don't like?

That's the question for conservatives as the Trump administration doubles down on excusing the execution-style killing of Alex Pretti by blaming the victim for legally carrying a concealed gun.

Minneapolis police say Mr. Pretti was legally entitled to carry a gun which several sworn depositions already filed in court say he never pulled out or brandished.

Bovino and others in the administration have conjured up a threat narrative without presenting any proof that the man his agents shot, the ICU nurse, wasn't there to help people as he is seen helping a woman they pushed to the ground before they pepper sprayed them both in the face. They claim that the mere presence of his weapon on his person was proof of intent for whatever chickenshit threat to his armored and armed agents they can think up real quick.

That was what Bovino was claiming on the teevee news yesterday - that his unfounded and outrageous suggestions that Alex Pretti may have been planning to shoot law enforcement officers was evident to him because this private citizen was there with a gun.

Kyle Rittenhouse, anyone....?

That party line was echoed by Trump Cabinet members across the Sunday press shows. FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News that protestors have no right to carry firearms.

“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple. You don’t have that right to break the law and incite violence,” he said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also erroneously stated that you can’t bring a gun to a protest. Bessent trampled over host Jonathan Karl’s assertion that all Americans have a right to bear arms during a stop by ABC’s “This Week.”

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/25/those-rights-dont-count-bovino-says-pretti-forfeited-2nd-amendment-rights-in-fatal-shooting/

Trump supporting, second amendment-touting conservatives found refuge and opportunism in yet another republican administration; right wing dupes of decades of appeals from their political leaders to hate and denigrate their brown-skinned neighbors; mostly poor whites who've been told by their leaders and their niche media that brown-skinned people are the reason they can't find work or can't get ahead; even as their own elected leaders openly rob them blind of the meager benefit they get from government as they fill their own pockets from the U.S. Treasury or use the influence of their offices to enrich themselves instead of their constituents.

Now their own elected officials have shown their true face and have leapt past their promises to unleash government power against mostly brown-skinned immigrants, and have turned those very same repressive resources against EVERYONE, not just the immigrants they acquiesced to the Trump regime's campaign of ethnic cleansing WITH THEIR VOTES.

Will they now just align their armed militancy with the government that's now indiscriminately arrayed it's repressive power against the people? Isn't that what the Trump regime's defenses about some threat from "leftist ideology" is all about, designating their made-up nemesis, "antifa" as a terrorist organization?

Will conservatives simply align themselves with this oppressive regime, convinced that they are in some protected group, and that the 'enemies of the state' as Trump has specifically labeled his Democratic opposition, along with any other opposition be fair game to them for this open warfare against Democratic-led and dominated cities and states?

Or will they recognize that Trump's violent and murderous repression is actually a blunt instrument designed to tear down all of America like he's tearing down the White House, claiming it's too late for "obstructionists" to do anything about it?

Will they realize that the Trump regime justifying the murder of Alex Pretti on the pretext that his holstered, legal gun (removed by an agent seconds before he was shot and killed) was a threat that deserved the punishment of a street-execution by federal agents - now claiming the mere presence of the holstered weapon was proof some kind of mind crime plot to kill them - is a clear and present danger to any one of them the government arbitrarily decides is a threat to the state?

Right wing Trump supporters have lowered their own guard so far that they're caught in-between holding onto their antipathies against brown-skinned people, and maintaining their support for a government they elected into power which is now openly antagonistic to their very political ideology and being.

First the convicted felon they elected said this militarization in our communities was about some threat to the nation from undocumented immigrants; now they're asserting that they're striking out at a "leftist ideology" that threatens THEM and their own politicized interests; insisting that just carrying a gun is a threat to them and the wanton warfare they've been practicing in our neighborhoods.

Which side, whose side are these second amendment-touting conservatives on?

[leftstreet]

1. Your words expose something very, very ugly

These 2nd Amendment-ers are a long, long way from their ancestors who once believed they needed to arm themselves against the threat of "government."

DURec

[bigtree]

2. it was never just government modern-day conservatives were aligning themselves against

...but an armed offense against any Democratic-led government or legislative effort they felt threatened their interests, all encouraged and exploited by their political leaders.

Not to mention arming themselves against their neighbors, making them the most threatening thing to everyone in the neighborhood.

[Initech]

9. As someone who's been following these lunatics for a long time...

I always feel like they've been trained to follow whatever the narrative tells them, and it's usually against democrats when democrats are in charge, but when the most tyrannical regime in US history is in charge, now they're doing whatever that regime tells them. They are puppets and they're being controlled by highly weaponized propaganda.

[odins folly]

3. Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer

They will continue to do what they are currently doing, burying their heads in the sand and waiting for the day when their “leaders” in their chosen “militia” tells them who to arm up against next.
I own guns myself, have since my time in the military. Fortunately for me, I actually read and understand the US Constitution, I’m also old enough to remember when the NRA was FOR Arms regulations and training and safety above all else.
Most of those who have their gun manufacturing companies stickers all over their vehicles and like to proudly open carry are in the first long line of idiots waiting for directions and a faux patriotic chest pumping from authoritarian leaders.
Cosplaying your life in the belief no one will tread on them. Spouting shit about watering the tree etc.
truth is they are afraid, afraid of what someone else told them to be afraid of. And unfortunately they believe they will prevail, because their leaders told them the ones to hate are pussy and they can easily push them down.
Scared little kids with big guns, hiding in their basement waiting for the next D administration that tries to help them, and then they will be out in force again screaming about gov overreach and tyranny and shit….

[bigtree]

4. politicians and the gun industry deliberately armed their supporterrs

...lobbying, and ultimately, conveniently campaigning primarily against Democrats calling for sensible gun safety measures.

It didn't make sense because it was insincere and overtly political, favoring the one party that refused to do anything about the unaccountable proliferation of guns to the populace in the face of mass killing after mass killing; recognizing that their opposition was decidedly less armed and arrayed against their neighbors.

For conservatives, it was always about arming themselves against people they disagree with who they fantastically insist threaten their way of life; counterintuitively arming the government they claim is conspiring against them under the pretext that they will only go after those they're prejudiced against; like liberals, Democrats, LGBTQ individuals, brown-skinned people and foreigners.

You're right that we know who they're aligned with already. Question is, will they realize that the Trump regime intends to control or kill everyone who doesn't kowtow to them and their agents; not just the people they think threaten them, but each and every one of us.

Hell, they already own them.

Wonder how much that's sinking in to folks that we know aren't completely brain dead.

[bigtree]

5. Uncommon Knowledge: Why Won't MAGA Defend the Second Amendment?

https://www.newsweek.com/alex-pretti-shooting-trump-maga-second-amendment-11415983

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. They will align themselves with whatever allows them to shoot 'others'.

And, keep Medicare.

For themselves, of course.

[bigtree]

7. Iraq vet I worked with

...hated Muslims and wanted to look into reenlisting to go kill some more people.

'Undocumented get health care,' he would wail, not caring that it's emergency assistance because, he's lost in his revenge fantasy.

So much assumed privilege and superiority.

[Initech]

8. I've seriously been wondering that lately.

The propaganda has been twisted so much by some incredibly deranged propagandists that it's practically lost all meaning.

[bigtree]

10. did it ever have meaning

...outside of white conservatives pining for a segregated America?

[Kid Berwyn]

11. Let's ask Clarence Thomas.

NAZI-bribed turd has played a pivotal role in limiting gun control by shifting Supreme Court Second Amendment jurisprudence toward a strict originalist, historical misinterpretation, a move begun by the turds Rehnqust and Scalia, actions which enabled gunhumpers to own, carry and shoot as many “semiautomatic” machine guns as they can find.

[travelingthrulife]

12. Does a bear shit in the woods? Is the Pope Catholic? etc.