February 02, 2026 08:19 AM UTC

As Fellow Republicans Defend Americans’ Speech and Gun Rights, Colorado’s Conceal-Carry Instructor Congressman Won’t Comment

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Didn’t Alex Pretti have “inalienable rights” too? — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally posted at the Colorado Times Recorder

In the six days since federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and killed a second Minneapolis resident, VA nurse Alex Pretti, Congressman Gabe Evans (R-CO) has made 12 Facebook posts, 15 posts to Instagram and X, and published a newsletter with 10 news blurbs. None of these mentions the shooting death of Americans by federal law enforcement officers.

Evans’ silence is notable for several reasons, perhaps none more salient than one of his lesser-known jobs outside of public office: certified concealed carry instructor. According to his bio, Evans “has taught hundreds of Coloradans about their inalienable rights.”

In addition to his professional experience as a soldier, police officer, and firearms instructor, Evans has credited gun rights advocacy as the origin of his political career.

During his first campaign for office, running for the state legislature in 2022, a local conservative activist asked Evans if he believed that “average citizens should be able to possess the same equipment that the police officers do?”

“Absolutely,” Evans answered. “The Second Amendment was probably my very first political issue. I am a passionate pro-Second Amendment supporter. I actually teach concealed carry classes now because I figure with 22 years of service in the military and law enforcement, you know, I probably have a pretty decent background in both not only the legal decision-making in self-defense, but the morals, the ethical, the emotional part of that — the actual tactics. So I work with a company that’s composed mostly of former military and law enforcement people that are passionate about making sure that we equip citizens to have the tools and the techniques and the equipment and the training to be able to defend themselves. … I encountered quite a lot of armed citizens when I was a cop, and not one of the good guys ever tried to shoot me.”

Once in office, Evans worked on conceal-carry legislation both during his one term as a state legislator and once elected to Congress, where he co-sponsored last year’s Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2025.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t Evans but his Colorado GOP colleague Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO), who, while also calling for an investigation, saw fit to reiterate the basic rights of Pretti and all Americans: “People have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble and express their views, and to exercise their individual Second Amendment rights.”

Many other conservatives have made a point of defending Pretti’s carrying of a concealed weapon by pushing back on statements from top federal law enforcement officials. When First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli justified ICE’s shooting just a few hours after it happened, other Republicans and gun rights advocates both in Colorado and nationally rejected his words.

“This might be one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen a government official say in my life. WOW,” posted Rocky Mountain Gun Owners director Ian Escalante. The NRA called Essayli’s statement “dangerous and wrong.”

Another of Evans’ U.S. House colleagues, Thomas Massie (R-KY), wrote, “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.”

Evans did not respond to an email request for comment on ICE’s killing of Pretti and his position on the victim’s Second Amendment rights from his perspective as a firearms instructor. This article will be updated with any response received.

Via a spokesperson, his office did release a statement last week to some members of the press on the day of the shooting, in which he called for a thorough investigation before any evaluation could be made as to whether officers followed policy. Today, the Dept. of Justice announced that it will conduct an investigation, but at the time, the only information available was that the DOJ had already refused to investigate ICE’s previous killing of a Minnesotan, Renee Good.

Evans did offer extended comments on that killing in a long interview with Nexstar Media that took place a week after her death. In fact, it was reporter Vinay Simlot’s first question:

Simlot: I’m sure you saw what happened yesterday in Minnesota. As a former cop, I just wanted to get your thoughts on what happened and what you saw in those videos.

Evans: “I mean, it’s not what you see in the videos, it’s what you don’t see before the video, off screen of the video, after the video. I can say that because as we just talked, I was a police officer for 10 years, made it up to command-level ranks. I’ve actually responded to – I was counting last night – I think it’s ten officer-involved shootings. There is a whole process that goes into investigating those because the smallest detail can change the whole direction of the investigation. Cops always have an inherent right to self-defense. But being able to articulate that is incumbent on all of the details leading up to the situation, what the cop saw, what happened, what was off-camera, what was happening before the camera was rolling. That process can take months. And so without all of those details, it’s just difficult to come to any sort of conclusion. Anybody that says they know what happened, I guarantee you, having been to ten officer-involved shootings- they don’t know what happened. They don’t have the full picture. And until we have the full picture, you just, you can’t make a judgment.”

That same day, Jan. 13, the New York Times reported that six prosecutors in the Department of Justice Minnesota office resigned over their leadership’s directive to investigate the victim rather than the ICE agent who killed her.

Evans will have an opportunity to ask questions of ICE officials at an upcoming hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, of which he is a member. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow will testify at a full committee hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 10, regarding oversight of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) components charged with border security and immigration enforcement.