From the research I’ve conducted, this statement appears to be false. The only evidence supporting the claim that the photo of the firearm was fake is a screenshot of an image search of the firearm with a Reddit post titled “Weekly Discussion Megathread” that was supposedly posted 5 days prior to the incident involving Alex Pretti. According to this Snopes article: "We found no evidence the image the DHS shared circulated online before the Jan. 24 shooting or that it was a pre-existing stock image.” However, in the article, it was stated that the metadata for the photo could not be obtained to confirm the legitimacy of the statement that the photo that the DHS shared is not the firearm found on Pretti. It is also important to add that many photos surrounding this incident are AI-generated or altered in some way. But from my research, the photo being questioned is not AI-generated or altered.
(Tagging this as Exaggerated/Misleading due to the fact that the metadata on the photo could not be obtained to confirm the legitimacy of it)
Source:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/01/26/alex-pretti-gun-dhs-stock-photo/
