Gun-rights groups decried the administration’s rhetoric on Alex Pretti’s gun. Then Trump went even further.

The Trump administration didn’t have a whole lot to work with after a federal officer shot and killed someone again this weekend in Minneapolis.

About the best defense it could muster was pointing out that Alex Pretti had a gun — even though he was legally carrying it, even though there’s no sign he brandished it, and even though video showed he was disarmed before he was killed.

Perhaps predictably, that didn’t go well.

It turns out the party’s base full of Second Amendment supporters didn’t like the idea that merely being armed might give the government more of a right to kill you. You can understand how people who view guns as a bulwark against government tyranny might see that as a potentially troublesome standard.

So when a bunch of Trump administration officials raised this talking point, gun-rights groups pushed back.

The issue might have then faded, with the administration generally taking a more conciliatory posture on the shooting in Minnesota. But President Donald Trump has now pushed it right back to center stage. And in fact, he’s gone further than the administration officials who initially inflamed gun groups.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Trump said he disagreed with White House adviser Stephen Miller’s baseless claim labeling Pretti a “would-be assassin.” But then he went on.

“With that being said, you can’t have guns,” Trump said. “You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t.”

A reporter asked Trump how that squared with the Second Amendment. But Trump didn’t back down.

“You can’t walk in with guns, you can’t do that,” he said. “But it’s a very unfortunate incident.”

Trump then echoed the comments later that afternoon in Iowa.

“Certainly, he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Trump said.

Trump added: “I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff.”

Trump’s comments go further than others who had generally couched their criticisms as being about confrontations with law enforcement and about Pretti’s intentions. They hadn’t suggested it was wrong to have guns at a protest, period.

Bill Essayli, a US attorney in California, initially drew gun-rights supporters’ ire by saying, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made a similar point about being “confronted by law enforcement.” Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino invoked having a gun while you “obstruct and impede law enforcement officers.”

When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel raised the issue of the gun, they suggested that it offered evidence about Pretti’s intentions.

“No one who wants to be peaceful shows up at a protest with a firearm that is loaded with two full magazines,” Patel said.

Trump, on the other hand, has now dismissed the idea that Pretti had ill intentions. And his comments weren’t careful to say guns were dangerous when it comes to interactions with law enforcement. He has now repeatedly said that Pretti shouldn’t have had a gun at a protest, full stop.

So what do gun-rights groups do about that?

A couple of them have already spoken out.

Dudley Brown, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights, told CNN that Trump’s comments were “clearly mistaken” and “wrong.” He argued it can actually be a “moral duty” to be armed at a protest.

“I reached out to a great number of people in the administration at a very high level. And I only sent them three letters: W.T.F.,” Brown said of the administration officials’ comments in recent days. “And then this happens.”

Another group, Gun Owners of America, also objected.

“You absolutely may walk around with guns, and you absolutely may peacefully protest while armed,” the group’s senior vice president, Erich Pratt, told CNN. “We have the First and Second amendments to protect the right to protest while armed — an American historical tradition that dates back to the Boston Tea Party.”

The group also sent out a clip of Trump’s comments on X and pledged: “GOA will hold any administration accountable.”

The biggest gun-rights group is, of course, the National Rifle Association.

It turned plenty of heads over the weekend by calling Essayli’s comments “dangerous and wrong.”

“Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens,” the NRA posted on X on Saturday night.

Trump’s comments would certainly seem to qualify for that same criticism. The NRA hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment from CNN.