Joey Jones addressed the Minnesota shooting by laying out his view of Second Amendment rights, the responsibilities tied to lawful firearm carry, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Alex Pretti.
Jones framed his remarks around the distinction between the constitutional right to bear arms and the obligations that come with exercising that right.
“Couple of things. Number one, the Second Amendment is a right. I’m our Second Amendment absolutist. You have the right to carry a weapon to defend yourself, not the privilege. It is a right,” Jones said.
He added that those rights are not without limits, noting, “Those rights come with restrictions. I think you would understand that more than anyone at this table. One of those restrictions is you have to have your ID and your permit on you.”
Jones said available information indicated that Pretti did not have the required documentation at the time of the incident.
“We don’t know. Current reports are, he didn’t have either one of those on at which point he’s not carrying legally,” he said.
Beyond documentation, Jones emphasized training and judgment.
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“But number two, even beyond that, with the right to carry a firearm, comes the responsibility to do it correctly, and to do it with foresight and to do it understanding the situation you’re walking into and what could happen once you get there,” Jones said.
He pointed to firearms training courses offered across the country, saying, “Just about every state offers a class on that, and if you carry your firearm, you should take that class. And if your state charges you for it, you should go protest for that class to be taxpayer funded, because it is a right.”
Jones argued that while policy debates often dominate public discussion, individual actions played a decisive role in the outcome of the incident.
“We can talk about policy all day long. There’s only one person’s world that could have absolutely prevented Alex Pretti from getting shot that day, and it’s Alex Pretti,” he said.
Jones added that his assessment did not mean the shooting was justified or unavoidable.
“That doesn’t mean I think he should have been shot. I don’t think it was necessary whatsoever to shoot Alex Pretti to save a life,” he said.
Jones said his perspective was shaped by reviewing video footage.
“I get to watch that incident from behind Alex Pretti not as one of the arresting officers and not as potentially the person that I believe from looking at the video, did shoot him,” he said.
Addressing the number of shots fired, Jones referenced standard law enforcement training.
“Why does he have 10 rounds in him? Because if you have to shoot anybody once, you better shoot them enough to kill him. Because if you’re shooting somebody, you think they’re trying to kill you,” Jones said.
He added, “Every police officer in this country is taught that if you want to change that, go lobby to have it changed.”
Jones pointed to Supreme Court precedent governing police use of force.
“Why was he shot? He was shot because of the reason reasonableness clause, the reasonableness doctrine the Supreme Court decided this,” he said, explaining that officers may act when someone “has resisted arrest violently or not disobeyed orders and shown the means to harm you.”
Still, Jones said there were earlier moments that could have altered the outcome.
“Do I think he should have been shot? No, because I see 10 things that happened before that happened that could have been handled differently. But what I don’t see are the 10 minutes before that happened,” he said.
Jones rejected characterizations of Pretti as a protester.
“You call him a protester, I call him an agitator,” he said, adding, “He showed up with a cell phone. He showed up in the middle of the street, in the middle of an operation. That’s common sense.”
He also argued that crowd control measures could have prevented the confrontation.
“Another way it could have been prevented is if there was a police cordon from Minneapolis Police Department stopping people from like Alex Pretti from getting in the middle of the operation,” Jones said.
Jones acknowledged that legal accountability could still be determined.
“There might even be a federal agent that goes to jail because some jury or a federal investigation decides he acted prematurely or shot him and shouldn’t have that,” he said, while noting he had not reviewed the full investigation.
Jones said Pretti’s conduct during the encounter mattered under state law.
“I know for a fact Alex Pretti had no business where he was in that moment. I know for a fact that he did resist arrest,” he said.
“And if you are carrying lawfully the moment you resist arrest, you are now carrying unlawfully to the point that in the state of Minnesota, your carry permit is revoked in that moment.”
He concluded by faulting political leadership and calling for stronger coordination among agencies.
“So the point here is nobody’s condemned in this other than the politicians that let it happen,” Jones said.
He added, “Border Patrol agents need to get to the border and do their job. Minneapolis Police Department, all 600 of them, if they need to, need to be there to help.”
Jones ended by stressing personal responsibility.
“I don’t want anybody get hurt. I love people. I even love bad people. But for God’s sake, have some common sense,” he said.
“That’s your responsibility, especially if you’re carrying a weapon, and that was not exercised, and I can’t help that.”
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