FBI Director Kash Patel’s recent comments on Fox News’ Hannity have ignited a firestorm in the 2A community, and for good reason. While discussing the chaotic protests and riots in Minnesota over the weekend—reminiscent of the 2020 George Floyd unrest—Patel urged lawful gun owners to be smart and avoid showing up with a fully-loaded weapon. He framed it as a call for caution: It’s not smart to go out there… We’re just saying be careful. On the surface, it sounds like pragmatic advice from a law enforcement leader who’s seen the front lines. But peel back the layers, and this is a subtle nudge toward self-disarmament in the face of mob violence, straight from a Trump-appointed FBI head who’s supposed to champion constitutional rights.

Let’s contextualize this: Minnesota’s streets were ablaze with rioters torching businesses and clashing with police, yet Patel’s message singles out armed citizens as the ones needing to dial it back. This echoes the post-2020 playbook where officials begged people to let police handle it while response times stretched into hours and National Guard deployments lagged. History shows self-defense is often the only reliable shield—recall the armed rooftop defenders in Kenosha who held the line when authorities couldn’t. Patel’s wording—fully-loaded weapon—implies restraint short of total vulnerability, but in reality, a smart gun owner knows that half-measures invite disaster. It’s the kind of rhetoric that plays well on cable news but erodes the proactive ethos of the Second Amendment, where deterrence through readiness has prevented countless escalations.

The implications for gun owners are stark: even allies in high places can default to risk-averse platitudes that undermine our rights under pressure. This isn’t about recklessness; it’s about recognizing that in no-go zones created by rioters, the state often fails its monopoly on force. 2A advocates should take note—Patel’s a pro-gun voice overall, but this slip highlights why we can’t outsource vigilance to bureaucrats. Arm up responsibly, train hard, and ignore the be careful chorus that really means stay home. The right to self-defense isn’t situational; it’s absolute, especially when Minnesota burns again.