JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
All week, the White House has scrambled to respond to public outrage over the fatal shooting of VA nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents. It has changed oversight of its immigration operation and even acknowledged that agents may not have been following protocol. But the administration continues to maintain that Pretti should not have had a firearm. And for some Minneapolis residents, this claim has felt completely out of touch with the reality of gun culture there. NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef is here with more. Hi there.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: Hey. So Odette, there's been a whole lot of talk about Alex Pretti carrying a gun. But as I recall, you did some reporting out of Minneapolis on gun culture there, right?
YOUSEF: I did, yeah. So last winter, I was in Minneapolis looking at an organization called Sequeerity, and they offer a number of services. And one of them is they offer permit to carry classes. And at that time, right after Trump's reelection, they were seeing a spike in clients from marginalized backgrounds, you know, people that they characterize as on the left end of the political spectrum. But even before that, Juana, you know, they told me that the first turning point was really after George Floyd's killing at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
SUMMERS: And how did Floyd's death change gun culture in Minneapolis?
YOUSEF: Well, here's how Kimmy Hull put it to me. She's the founder of Sequeerity.
KIMMY HULL: People carry much more regularly than they did before George Floyd. You know, a lot of it has come from the fact that, especially with having to learn how to take care of ourselves, you know, through our community defenses, it's become a normal thing to carry.
YOUSEF: So to rewind a bit, Juana, you'll remember that after Floyd was killed, there were protests around the country. But in the communities really directly around where Floyd was killed, you know, faith in police was really broken. And in fact, police essentially abandoned service to some of those areas as the unrest was continuing. So residents felt that their safety was up to them, and for some, part of that meant learning to use and carry a gun. And I looked at data from the state, and they show a big jump in people applying for permits to carry in 2020 and 2021, although the data are limited in what they tell us beyond that.
SUMMERS: Right. So what then do people make of these assertions by President Trump that Pretti should not have been carrying a gun?
YOUSEF: So first off, you know, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara has said that Pretti was a licensed gun owner with a valid permit to carry. But Hull tells me that she feels like in Minneapolis, again, in part because of this particular local history, you know, it's actually quite normal for people to carry - people from all kinds of political backgrounds.
SUMMERS: Well, Odette, has the death of Alex Pretti changed how Hull or others even think about concealed carrying?
YOUSEF: So first, you know, Hull and her fellow firearms trainers told me they see a double standard in how the administration is characterizing this case versus armed far-right actors. But also, they told me that Pretti's death is highlighting the danger of carrying if you don't share the president's politics. You know, they say they always advise people not to carry at protests or rallies. But in this case, Pretti was not at that kind of an organized event. You know, he was out, he was concealed carrying, and he started recording something that unfolded on the street where he was.
SUMMERS: NPR's Odette Yousef, thank you.
YOUSEF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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