A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and son-in-law came over to my apartment, where I cooked supper for us. After we finished eating, our conversation focused recent news events that had unfolded in the still fairly new year, any one of which could have served as a primary topic for the entire evening. After our conversation turned to the January 7th murder of Renee Nicole Good by Jonathan Ross, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, and the January 24th murder of Alex Pretti by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, I observed that carrying a weapon into a street protest, while always risky, is now potentially suicidal. My daughter and her hubby both quickly objected, pointing out that Pretti had a permit to carry a concealed firearm, and that one of the CPB officers had confiscated it moments before others shot him. I was certainly aware of the near instantaneous right-wing smear campaign to blame the victim for getting himself shot, and decided not to pursue the point any further.