R2KBA

The shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026, has become radioactive almost instantly. Everyone rushed to pick a team.

If you ever needed a clean, real-world example of how broken New York’s gun laws are, this is it.

And fair warning: this is one of those “sounds boring until it gets expensive or criminal” topics.

In short: the law doesn’t allow rights to be denied based on vibes.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is once again using fear-driven rhetoric around so-called “ghost guns” to justify a sweeping expansion of state power.

Under the proposal, licensed firearms dealers would be required to collect a $500 excise tax per suppressor sold beginning July 1, 2026.

At the center of the dispute is money and control.

GOA isn’t alone here. Across the gun-rights world, patience is wearing thinner than an ATF interpretation letter.

For comparison, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported an unadjusted December 2025 NICS figure of 2,220,852, reflecting a 16.1 percent decline from the unadjusted 2,647,933 checks recorded in December 2024.