Last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly shot and killed two men. A video shows him being chased by several attackers, one brandishing a handgun, when he shot the second man. While various media outlets have sought to characterize Rittenhouse as a white supremacist, a militia member, a police idolizer, and a fan of the Second Amendment, there has been little discussion of why a 17-year-old from the neighboring state of Illinois appears to have answered the call to defend Kenosha from “violent thugs.”
So, why was a 17-year-old from Illinois armed in Kenosha? In the wake of sustained mob violence and the Left’s movement to defund and dismantle the police, the job of maintaining law and order has begun to fall upon ordinary citizens to band together as home guards or armed neighborhood watches to protect life and property. Rittenhouse told a reporter that “[p]eople are getting injured, and [my] job is to protect this business, and part of my job is to also help people. If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle because I need to protect myself, obviously.”
The Kenosha police apparently appreciated the help. The Washington Post reported that the “armed men [in Kenosha] were welcomed by police, who thanked them for being in the city. … ‘We appreciate you guys,’ one officer tells the men in a live stream video published online. ‘We really do.’”
The Left is actively at work fomenting violence in Democratic-run cities across our great country. Just last Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul, a leading advocate for criminal justice reform, and his wife were “attacked” by an “angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House.” These fools shouted, “Say her name: Breonna Taylor,” oblivious to the fact that Paul sponsors the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, which would bar no-knock warrants of the type that led to her shooting. But for the heroic efforts of the police, Paul said that they could have been killed.
But the police cannot be in all places at all times, and they are not equipped to respond to the unprecedented levels of mob violence occurring in our cities. In many cities, mayors are ordering the police to stand down and let the mobs burn and loot. Some police officers are no longer willing to undertake the attendant risks that go along with restoring law and order. And who can blame them? No member of the thin blue line wants to suffer the same fate as retired police officer David Dorn, who was killed amid the rioting and looting in St. Louis.
It was just a matter of time before some armed civilian such as Rittenhouse woke up to his worst nightmare. And the Left has been waiting patiently for that day to give them another argument why ordinary people should not be allowed to use firearms to protect and preserve the social order.
The disarmament of law-abiding people is at the very top of the Left’s agenda. Joe Biden has a track record of supporting laws to ban the nation’s most common firearms, as well as supporting the appointment of Supreme Court justices who would gut the Second Amendment.
On Friday, a lawyer for Rittenhouse said in a statement that his client acted in self-defense. That the “mob” was “determined to hurt Kyle.” Under Wisconsin law, a person may use deadly force if he reasonably believes that it is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or to others.
Straight out of the Left’s playbook, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called Rittenhouse a “white supremacist domestic terrorist.” Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, described him as a “deranged white nationalist Trump supporter.” So far, these claims about Rittenhouse, including “white supremacy,” are purely speculative and lack a factual basis.
Rittenhouse’s fate will ultimately be decided by a jury of peers unless the case against him is dismissed. Whatever the outcome, we must not let this story serve as a catalyst to institute any part of the Left’s plan to render millions of law-abiding people helpless at the hands of violent thugs.
Mark W. Smith is a presidential scholar at King’s College in New York City and the author of First They Came for the Gun Owners: The Campaign to Disarm You and Take Your Freedoms.
