#455 — More From Sam: Guns, Propaganda, AI, and Power Unbound

What It Covers

Sam Harris examines the Alex Preddy killing by ICE officers in Minneapolis, focusing on the absence of outrage from Second Amendment advocates and the federal government's response that contradicts gun rights principles Americans claim to value.

Key Questions Answered

• •Second Amendment hypocrisy: Gun rights advocates who claim firearms protect against tyrannical government remain silent after federal officers killed a legally armed citizen, despite this representing the exact scenario they've prepared for their entire lives. Under a Democratic president, 500 armed citizens would likely shadow the next ICE deployment in protest.
• •Government overreach precedent: Federal officials from the president to Stephen Miller established that carrying firearms near law enforcement warrants a death sentence, then falsely labeled Preddy a terrorist and assassin despite video evidence showing he never reached for his weapon and was fully restrained when shot ten times.
• •Irrelevance of prior conduct: Past behavior or confrontations with law enforcement do not justify lethal force once a suspect is disarmed and restrained. The video shows officers discovered Preddy's gun on his belt, removed it, and then shot him without justification, making any previous actions legally and morally irrelevant to the killing itself.
• •Climate concern displacement: Existential climate risks have fallen outside the top ten concerns for most people because the threats move too slowly compared to immediate political crises. Even climatologists likely lack bandwidth to focus on long-term environmental issues when facing urgent governance failures and constitutional violations requiring immediate attention.