That's a really good question for all those ICE and DHS agents.

I suspect a partial answer might be that many are not in their right minds, are under trained, and over motivated by bonus payments and past divorces.

No. Private citizens on the street confronting law enforcement while carrying a weapon...well...would you do that?

> Private citizens on the street confronting law enforcement

What actions are you alleging qualifies as confronting? Be specific. Unless I have a wildly different definition of confronting, everything I've read and every video I've seen from different angles shows the opposite.

(This is setting aside the fact that having a concealed carry permit and carrying a legal firearm is not a death sentence in this country.)

Let's put it another way. Would you go to an area like this with a loaded gun? Why would you do that? No one seems to want to answer these questions.

Yes, I would, for the same reason I refuse to say anything at the border other than "I'm an American citizen," and for the same reason I refuse to say a word to the police during a traffic stop other than "I reserve my fifth amendment right to remain silent."

Rights aren't rights if you don't get to actually use them.

Right now Americans are learning the lessons of the black panthers: constitutionally protected "rights" are only rights so long as your flexing of them isn't inconvenient to the State. We've been shouting this at McMilitias for decades now.

The friends I know with concealed carry tend to keep it on them to feel safe, and partly just out of habit / feeling fulfilled in exercising their 2A right.

Not related to this situation, but in the city I live in, it's better to keep it on your person than in your car because kids are breaking into cars precisely because they know people from the suburbs visiting downtown might have one in their glove box.

> No one seems to want to answer these questions.

Have you considered why? It's telling that you haven't answered my question: How exactly did the victim confront law enforcement?

I can't speak for everyone here but frankly, I find these "Would you do X?" questions irrelevant and I struggle to see a good faith reason for asking them. I can think of many bad faith reasons, for example shifting blame to the victim to remove focus from the border patrol agents' actions. Or a more charitable interpretation is you view this as a simple matter of cause and effect: if he didn't bring a gun he'd still be alive; or perhaps, if he stayed home altogether he'd still be alive. Is that your motivation for asking these questions?

Setting aside the fact that no, we don't know those things to be true, I don't think that interpretation of your intent is much better. But you also haven't been forthcoming with why you're placing so much importance on these questions.

Because they have the right to

None of your business. Or ICE's.

Because they are irrelevant victim-blaming.

It is our absolute right to do so and if we don't assert our rights we lose them.

Wow, that's some deep passive-aggressive victim blaming right there.

He wasn't screaming at them, he was filming them and then later helping up someone else who had been assaulted by them. Not that it should matter, screaming at the feds is protected first amendment activity.

Sorry. I shouldn't have said screaming. That's usually what I see in all this but he did not obey orders from the agents so the same question still applies. Why would anyone go to such an area armed with a weapon? Would you do that?

I would probably not do that, but it's not illegal to carry a gun. Who knows if he set out to protest or if he just was in the area and spontaneously decided to record when he observed federal agents? He could be one of many Americans who carry a gun regularly. Maybe he didn't intend to do any protesting or anything at all.

A requirement in all 50 states is to obey orders given by law enforcement. It's obvious he did not obey orders as they tried to detain him (however anyone wants to describe that).

I don't see any evidence that he was resisting. His hands were on the ground and he allowed himself to be disarmed. I did not hear any commands before the dogpile and subsequent gunshots. If I'm missing something please tell me what to listen for in the videos and I'll watch again.

Ah yes, that justifies his murder.

Lol, here we go again. "If you do not obey the orders of the execution squad as they are killing you, then their killing you is justified. After all, they are lAw eNfOrCeMeT!!!1!!"

The implication being that summary execution is a perfectly acceptable punishment for not immediately falling on the ground with your hands behind your back when a “law enforcement” goon eve looks at you?

You don’t see a problem with that?

What orders?

What obstruction?

They walked up to him. You are lying by implication that he was obstructing shit unless you mean in the 30 seconds from being dogpiled to shot.

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38687832>

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569057>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Asking_Questions>

I don't think the phrasing of "confront law enforcement" is right here, in a period of about 20 seconds he went from helping a woman who had been pushed, to maced in the face, to dead. This is not confrontation, you can literally see him clutching the woman he had previously been helping up in a panic after they were sprayed with chemicals.

But setting all of that aside (which is a big aside), even if he was confronting them with his camera while armed, the whole bullshit shtick of the second amendment is that being armed should not be a crime much less a death sentence. He did not brandish his weapon or threaten law enforcement in any of the half dozen videos that have been released so far. To be even more clear as a citizen you are allegedly supposed to be protected from summary execution/judgement with or without the possession of a firearm, in many legal circles the possession of a firearm grants you more protections under the law not less.

They had him pinned to the ground and disarmed when they shot him in the back, based off the various analyses of the videos. So the shooting is going to be very hard to justify (though they'll try really hard, and so will you it seems).

Some people really like the taste of boot leather

Again, when they grabbed him, did he comply with their orders or did he wrestle with them? Was he following their orders beforehand? Was he walking away from approaching officers?