Welcome to the resistance, Rep. Maddox. It’s nice to see you here | Opinion
I am trying to understand.
I’m trying to understand, because all I can see is Alex Pretti’s feet flopping to the ground to lie still forever. I’m trying to understand how federal agents shot him in the back because, like them, he was carrying a gun. He did not pull that gun or use it, but apparently having it on his person was enough to trigger state-sanctioned death.
I’m trying to understand, because I’ve lived in Kentucky for a long time. And as I’ve always been told, the Second Amendment means you are free to carry a gun whenever and wherever you like. But now, I’m told by conservatives, carrying a gun means trigger-happy federal cowboys can murder you at 9 a.m. in the middle of the street.
I’m trying to understand, because there is so much I don’t understand these days. I have so many questions. We are supposed to be exceptional. Instead, we have allowed one venal narcissist to hijack our country and tell us what we see with our eyes is not real.
At least one of my questions has been answered by an unlikely source. Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, rebutted many of her fellow Republicans on X yesterday as she pointed out that carrying a handgun is not actually permission for law enforcement to kill someone.
“Your federal government is trying to convince you that the mere state of being armed — which is your God-given, constitutionally protected right — is a ‘threat to law enforcement,’” she wrote Sunday. “Subverting the 2nd Amendment was not OK under Biden, and it’s not OK now.”
Thank you, Rep. Maddox, because I thought the reason we are the only country on earth to put up with mass killings in our schools was because the right to own and carry guns was indeed sacrosanct.
Congressman Thomas Massie, who has called out Trump for a while now, weighed in along similar lines.
“Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this, you have no business in law enforcement or government,” he wrote.
Let’s look at it another way. If a police officer shoots a civilian, no matter what, they are put on administrative leave while an investigation is done. In this case, and in the death of Renee Good, the Department of Homeland Security won’t be doing an investigation because they are too busy destroying evidence and blocking local law enforcement from real investigations.
Is it because ICE isn’t a police force, it’s an occupying army, and we are already at war? And are we OK with that?
Once again, it’s fine to want more controls on immigration. But President Barack Obama deported three million people and never felt the need to occupy entire cities and execute U.S. citizens. He didn’t feel the need to let loose an untrained, undisciplined horde on our land, while Kristi Noem tells us we should show identification whenever asked.
Isn’t this the tyranny so many Republicans worried about? Why aren’t you worried now?
Kentucky, as much as you love Trump, do you really think we should shoot U.S. citizens in their cars and in the streets? And do you really think that once state violence is ensconced in our lives, it won’t some day turn back on all of us?
All I know is we have to keep asking questions, and we have to keep speaking out. Because right now, we are in the process of losing our country to corruption and cruelty and state sanctioned violence and death. And I’m still trying to understand why.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
