The tragic lesson on the gun lobby from Minneapolis

Even though national attention has shifted away from Minneapolis in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s so-called “Operation Metro Surge”, the community there is still reeling from the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents. And the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, remains in a government shutdown as Democrats in Congress continue demanding guardrails to prevent future bloodshed in our streets.

Against that backdrop, we must confront this fact: Second Amendment extremists spent decades laying the foundation for our current landscape.

For decades, the gun lobby sold the myth that personal firepower is the only check against a tyrannical government. They have marketed fear as a civic duty and a firearm as the only insurance policy. And now, the very same individuals exposed for years to violent gun industry marketing we have called out and sought to regulate are being directly recruited to join ICE.

Here’s how. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) social media is deploying white supremacist and anti-immigrant messaging to recruit new ICE agents online while agents are being recruited from gun shows. These new recruits are then given military-style training, without a focus on de-escalation, and issued firearms paid for by our tax dollars. Just last year, DHS spent over $120 million on weapons contracts that help pad the pocketbooks of gun industry executives.

Minneapolis, though, has exposed the gun lobby and its allies in government as a fraud. After furthering the lie that a firearm is the key to personal safety, members of the administration, including President Trump, described Alex Pretti as an “agitator,” even an “insurrectionist” for carrying a holstered, legal weapon for which he had a concealed carry permit. The NRA initially blamed peaceful protesters, and other organizations like the National Shooting Sports Foundation — the gun industry’s trade association — avoided the subject.

While the gun lobby lionizes Kyle Rittenhouse and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, conservative individuals who pointed guns at peaceful protesters, they are silent when the state’s power is turned against Minneapolis’ peaceful protesters. When Philando Castile, a Black, law-abiding gun owner in the Minneapolis area was killed by law enforcement in 2016 for disclosing his legal firearm, the gun lobby was silent.

And the gun lobby has been equally silent about the disproportionate impact of America’s gun obsession on Black and Brown communities — by first blaming them for gun crime, and then encouraging individuals who live outside of these areas to buy even

more firearms. When the gun lobby does talk to these communities, it’s to market deadly firearms to protect families of color from racist attacks the gun lobby itself has encouraged.

For the gun lobby and its allies in Washington, the Second Amendment is not a universal right. It is a selective privilege reserved only for those who align exactly with their authoritarian worldview.

But true safety does not come from escalating violence everywhere. An arms race among civilians who’ve been sold the myth that guns make us safer or even free will not protect them from a militarized, emboldened federal agency invading cities that are run by duly elected leaders of the opposing party.

Gunpowder will not stop these abuses of power. But people power will.

Put differently, purchasing guns won’t stop these abuses of power. Instead, community organizing, electoral mobilization and political action will.

We are doing our part in every way we can. One of us has mobilized thousands of gun violence prevention advocates to pressure Congress into halting additional funding of DHS without safeguards on ICE and Custom and Border Patrol operations being put in place. The other is inside Congress, hearing from constituents who demand safety, building support for accountability measures for ICE and CBP, and fighting vociferously against the militarization of ICE and the violent assaults on our communities.

This moment demands clarity and peaceful action by people of every ideology. The answer is not fear or more firepower in our neighborhoods. It’s using your voice, contacting your legislators, mobilizing your network online and in your neighborhood to speak out, and making sure we all work together to guarantee oversight, accountability, and a government that answers to the American people.

• Democratic U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, of Chicago, represents Illinois District 2 in Congress. Kris Brown is president of Brady, the nation’s oldest gun-violence prevention group.