Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Gun control groups and Second Amendment organizations are weighing in on Kyle Rittenhouse’s full acquittal today, and as you can imagine, the reactions are very different depending on where they stand on the right to keep and bear arms in self-defense.
Gun control groups like March for Our Lives are “enraged” over the jury’s verdict, and are doing their utmost to continue to spin the narrative that Kyle Rittenhouse was a white supremacist who valued property over human life.
Let’s be clear. While some people in Kenosha may indeed have been peacefully protesting in favor of justice for Jacob Blake, the reason why Kyle Rittenhouse showed up is because many others were trying to burn the city down. They weren’t looking for justice. They were trying to jumpstart a revolution.
Honestly, that statement reads like it was written by prosecutor Thomas Binger, though the use of “kiddy gloves” instead of the actual phrase “kid gloves” leads me to believe that David Hogg had at least a hand in the press release.
Guns Down America’s Igor Volsky is also out there continuing to spread lies about the trial and the charges against Rittenhouse.
According to Judge Bruce Schroeder, Rittenhouse wasn’t illegally possessing a gun that night, and prosecutors offered nou objections when the judge dismissed the charge. You may think the Wisconsin law in question was poorly worded and needs to be revised, but it’s simply not true to say that the teen was illegally carrying a gun.
And yes, if you shoot someone and claim self-defense, you still start with the presumption of innocence in a court of law. It’s up to the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you weren’t acting in self-defense, and I don’t think the prosecution in the Rittenhouse case came close to meeting that standard. Why should anyone “pay a price” for lawfully defending their life? Oh, that’s right; because Volsky is fine with putting people in prison for simply carrying a gun without a license, much less defending their life with a firearm.
The first tweets by 2A orgs, on the other hand, were far less hyperbolic than what we saw from the gun control lobby.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
— NRA (@NRA) November 19, 2021
Meanwhile, the Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb said in a statement that the jury’s verdict in the Rittenhouse trial is an “affirmation that people, regardless of their age, have a right to defend themselves against a violent attack, by individuals or a mob.”
“Anyone who viewed the video evidence and listened to the testimony would easily conclude that Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense,” Gottlieb added. “Fortunately, this young man’s supporters were able to raise the funds necessary for mounting a first-class defense. But this was a high-profile case, and ample financial resources became available. What about lower-profile cases where people with limited resources find themselves unable to afford adequate legal counsel?”
It’s a good point, and it speaks to the conservative case for judicial reform that I wrote about on Thursday. I think Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger is probably relieved by the verdict in a way, because if the jury had come back with a conviction we might very well have seen Judge Bruce Schroeder grant a mistrial based on the prosecution’s evidentiary shenanigans.
Unfortunately there’s no opportunity for a mistrial in the court of public opinion, even with schmucks like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio still spreading outright B.S. about the facts of this case,
Rittenhouse didn’t bring a gun across state lines. He has no history of violence or dangerousness, and even on the night of August 25th he was helping treat minor injuries and trying to de-escalate tense situations according to eyewitnesses. The only reason why Kyle Rittenhouse pulled the trigger of his rifle is because he was being attacked, and the only people he shot were the individuals attacking him.
What’s particularly infuriating about the comments by people like Bill de Blasio (HotAir’s John Sexton has an excellent roundup of some of the other off-base reactions from the Left) is the fact that you know damn well that de Blasio wasn’t watching every second of the trial. Does he really believe he has a firmer grasp of the facts than the jurors here? If so, it’s only because of the toxic levels of narcissism coursing through the mayor’s bloodstream. Rather than at least acknowledging the jury did a difficult job and came to a unanimous decision that the mayor disagrees with, de Blasio declares the decision a “miscarriage of justice.”
If Bill de Blasio wants to talk about injustice, let’s talk about the New Yorkers in prison for the “violent” felony of simply carrying a firearm in the city and state without a government permission slip. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Listen to what New York public defenders have to say about some of the mayor’s favorite gun control laws and the damage they do, particularly to racial minorities.
This effort within The Bronx Defenders really took off because our colleague Christopher Smith had gone down to Texas, and observed firsthand just how just commonplace it was for folks to have weapons, to have guns, and for no one to bat an eyelash. His experience directly contrasted with our experience as public defenders in New York City, where we are seeing people engage in the exact same conduct and end up on Rikers Island. These are our mostly Black and brown clients who get wrapped up in the system — sent to Rikers, sent upstate, sent to prison over something that somewhere else, nothing would happen.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before Bill de Blasio ever protests these prison sentences, much less do anything to stop them. No, as much as the Left may be complaining about a miscarriage of justice in Kenosha, the gun control lobby and their political allies perpetuate their own injustices by criminalizing the exercise of a constitutional right. And while Bill de Blasio may be angry that Kyle Rittenhouse isn’t going to prison, the rest of us should never forget the folks who are behind bars or saddled with a felony conviction simply because they exercised their right to bear arms without first asking permission from the city or state of New York.
Gun control groups and Second Amendment organizations are weighing in on Kyle Rittenhouse’s full acquittal today, and as you can imagine, the reactions are very different depending on where they stand on the right to keep and bear arms in self-defense.
Gun control groups like March for Our Lives are “enraged” over the jury’s verdict, and are doing their utmost to continue to spin the narrative that Kyle Rittenhouse was a white supremacist who valued property over human life.
Let’s be clear. While some people in Kenosha may indeed have been peacefully protesting in favor of justice for Jacob Blake, the reason why Kyle Rittenhouse showed up is because many others were trying to burn the city down. They weren’t looking for justice. They were trying to jumpstart a revolution.
Honestly, that statement reads like it was written by prosecutor Thomas Binger, though the use of “kiddy gloves” instead of the actual phrase “kid gloves” leads me to believe that David Hogg had at least a hand in the press release.
Guns Down America’s Igor Volsky is also out there continuing to spread lies about the trial and the charges against Rittenhouse.
According to Judge Bruce Schroeder, Rittenhouse wasn’t illegally possessing a gun that night, and prosecutors offered nou objections when the judge dismissed the charge. You may think the Wisconsin law in question was poorly worded and needs to be revised, but it’s simply not true to say that the teen was illegally carrying a gun.
And yes, if you shoot someone and claim self-defense, you still start with the presumption of innocence in a court of law. It’s up to the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you weren’t acting in self-defense, and I don’t think the prosecution in the Rittenhouse case came close to meeting that standard. Why should anyone “pay a price” for lawfully defending their life? Oh, that’s right; because Volsky is fine with putting people in prison for simply carrying a gun without a license, much less defending their life with a firearm.
The first tweets by 2A orgs, on the other hand, were far less hyperbolic than what we saw from the gun control lobby.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
— NRA (@NRA) November 19, 2021
Meanwhile, the Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb said in a statement that the jury’s verdict in the Rittenhouse trial is an “affirmation that people, regardless of their age, have a right to defend themselves against a violent attack, by individuals or a mob.”
“Anyone who viewed the video evidence and listened to the testimony would easily conclude that Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense,” Gottlieb added. “Fortunately, this young man’s supporters were able to raise the funds necessary for mounting a first-class defense. But this was a high-profile case, and ample financial resources became available. What about lower-profile cases where people with limited resources find themselves unable to afford adequate legal counsel?”
It’s a good point, and it speaks to the conservative case for judicial reform that I wrote about on Thursday. I think Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger is probably relieved by the verdict in a way, because if the jury had come back with a conviction we might very well have seen Judge Bruce Schroeder grant a mistrial based on the prosecution’s evidentiary shenanigans.
Unfortunately there’s no opportunity for a mistrial in the court of public opinion, even with schmucks like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio still spreading outright B.S. about the facts of this case,
Rittenhouse didn’t bring a gun across state lines. He has no history of violence or dangerousness, and even on the night of August 25th he was helping treat minor injuries and trying to de-escalate tense situations according to eyewitnesses. The only reason why Kyle Rittenhouse pulled the trigger of his rifle is because he was being attacked, and the only people he shot were the individuals attacking him.
What’s particularly infuriating about the comments by people like Bill de Blasio (HotAir’s John Sexton has an excellent roundup of some of the other off-base reactions from the Left) is the fact that you know damn well that de Blasio wasn’t watching every second of the trial. Does he really believe he has a firmer grasp of the facts than the jurors here? If so, it’s only because of the toxic levels of narcissism coursing through the mayor’s bloodstream. Rather than at least acknowledging the jury did a difficult job and came to a unanimous decision that the mayor disagrees with, de Blasio declares the decision a “miscarriage of justice.”
If Bill de Blasio wants to talk about injustice, let’s talk about the New Yorkers in prison for the “violent” felony of simply carrying a firearm in the city and state without a government permission slip. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Listen to what New York public defenders have to say about some of the mayor’s favorite gun control laws and the damage they do, particularly to racial minorities.
This effort within The Bronx Defenders really took off because our colleague Christopher Smith had gone down to Texas, and observed firsthand just how just commonplace it was for folks to have weapons, to have guns, and for no one to bat an eyelash. His experience directly contrasted with our experience as public defenders in New York City, where we are seeing people engage in the exact same conduct and end up on Rikers Island. These are our mostly Black and brown clients who get wrapped up in the system — sent to Rikers, sent upstate, sent to prison over something that somewhere else, nothing would happen.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before Bill de Blasio ever protests these prison sentences, much less do anything to stop them. No, as much as the Left may be complaining about a miscarriage of justice in Kenosha, the gun control lobby and their political allies perpetuate their own injustices by criminalizing the exercise of a constitutional right. And while Bill de Blasio may be angry that Kyle Rittenhouse isn’t going to prison, the rest of us should never forget the folks who are behind bars or saddled with a felony conviction simply because they exercised their right to bear arms without first asking permission from the city or state of New York.