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| - After 37-year-old Alex Pretti was fatally shot at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis, some members of President Donald Trump's administration painted Pretti as a violent instigator because he was carrying a loaded gun while protesting.
In a Jan. 25 Fox News appearance, in reference to Pretti's death, FBI Director Kash Patel said (at 5:10), "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 a right to break the law and incite violence."
In response, many social media users questioned Patel's comments or disputed them — including the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a gun rights advocacy group, which called Patel "completely incorrect on Minnesota law."
Patel's comments also came after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — among other officials and Trump allies — implied that carrying a firearm gave officers a reason to shoot Pretti in self-defense. "I don't know of any peaceful protesters that show up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign," Noem said at a Jan. 24 news conference (see 0:58).
In fact, Minneapolis statutes, Minnesota state law and federal law all allow licensed gun owners to carry firearms, even loaded, in almost all public spaces, including at a protest.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara said on Jan. 26 that based on "every indication we have," Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, was "lawfully permitted to be armed in a public space."
City, state laws permit carrying guns at a protest
According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, there were, as of this writing, four Minnesota statutes that describe where gun permit holders are prohibited from carrying a firearm: sections 243.55, 609.66, 624.714 and 641.165. (See the answer on this webpage to "Where am I prohibited from carrying my pistol?")
A Snopes review of these four statutes found no provisions prohibiting licensed gun owners from carrying a loaded firearm to a protest.
Minnesota statute Section 243.55 prohibits people from carrying guns into a state correctional facility or state hospital; 609.66 prohibits firearm possession in courthouses, certain state buildings and on school property; and 641.165 prohibits taking guns into jails, lockups and correctional facilities.
The final statute, Section 624.714, largely concerns penalties for carrying a weapon without a permit. The law simply states that carrying a firearm in a public space requires a permit (emphasis ours):
A person, other than a peace officer, as defined in section 626.84, subdivision 1, who carries, holds, or possesses a pistol in a motor vehicle, snowmobile, or boat, or on or about the person's clothes or the person, or otherwise in possession or control in a public place, as defined in section 624.7181, subdivision 1, paragraph (c), without first having obtained a permit to carry the pistol is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. A person who is convicted a second or subsequent time is guilty of a felony.
An employee at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Betsy Haugen, also provided via email a 2022 report from Minnesota's nonpartisan Senate Counsel, Research, and Fiscal Analysis Office, which stated that under the terms of Minnesota gun permits, a license holder may carry in "most locations in the state," either openly or under concealment. The list of prohibited spaces in the report did not include protests or public spaces in general (see Page 2):
However, generally illegal to carry (with certain exceptions) on most public/private elementary, middle, or secondary school property, school buses, licensed childcare centers, courthouse complexes, federal buildings, correctional facilities, and state hospitals. Requires most private establishments (defined broadly) to conspicuously post a sign in the establishment or personally inform the carrier that firearms are prohibited in the establishment to prohibit carrying. Churches/houses of worship and homeowners/lawful possessors of private residences may prohibit carrying by any lawful manner.
Furthermore, both of the city of Minneapolis' ordinances on firearm possession in public — 393.90 and 393.95 — state that the provisions' restrictions do not apply to valid permit holders. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office, which prosecutes crimes in Minneapolis, also confirmed via email that licensed gun owners can legally carry a loaded firearm to a protest in the city.
None of the laws above state that permit holders cannot carry loaded weapons in public settings
Federal right to bear arms
The Supreme Court held in a 2022 case — New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen — that the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment generally protects the right to bear arms in public (see Page 2).
While this right is subject to licensure requirements and numerous exceptions, the Supreme Court has not recognized protests as an exception to Second Amendment rights, said Matthew Cavedon, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice.
"No federal laws prohibit bringing loaded guns into public spaces or to protests," Cavedon wrote in an email to Snopes.
That's backed up by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which, alongside the four Minnesota statutes, included one federal law under the list of provisions describing where people are prohibited from carrying firearms (see "Where am I prohibited from carrying my pistol?").
That law was 18 United States Code Section 930, which bans people from carrying a gun in federal facilities. It does not prohibit people from carrying a gun to a protest.
The U.S. Concealed Carry Association, an organization dedicated to educating and training gun owners, lists federal facilities and property, schools and Native American reservations as "federally designated places where weapons are banned, even with a permit." The organization did not list protests as one of those spaces.
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