Rittenhouse trial shines spotlight on American division

Verdict a setback for gun control; NRA says it’s a win for 2nd amendment

Four days before Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder, the judge in his case tossed out a charge: illegal possession of the military-style semi-automatic rifle he used to kill two people.

The withdrawal of the misdemeanor charge, which carried a maximum sentence of less than a year, was a footnote in a much bigger drama. Yet it was a telling reminder that the Rittenhouse case, in addition to examining the polarizing issues of race and the right to self-defense in the country, highlighted the growing proliferation of guns on America’s streets and the failure of efforts to implement even modest new gun restrictions.

While the government remains mired in stalemate on gun control, weapons purchases are at record levels. The run on ammunition has become so frenzied that gun shop owners have had to turn away hunters heading out for the winter big-game season. A spike in the firearm-related homicide rate during the pandemic has overwhelmed local police departments, and the proliferation of homemade firearms, “ghost guns,” has reached epidemic proportions in California.

Gun control advocates thought they would make some headway under President Joe Biden but have faced a backlash.

For the advocates, there have been some gains, including a pending ban on the online sale of kit guns and $5 billion in new violence prevention funding that was included in the social spending bill passed by the House hours before the verdict was announced. But congressional Republicans have blocked efforts to expand federal background checks on gun purchasers and restrict the sale of semi-automatic guns, or even to confirm a permanent director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

All of that has limited the White House to adopting a series of executive actions, including new regulations on ghost guns and accessories, called stabilizing braces, that can effectively turn a pistol into a short-barreled rifle; the regulatory changes are likely to provoke legal challenges. A ban on assault weapons, like the one that Rittenhouse carried, lapsed in 2004, and Republicans have blocked its renewal.

In the wake of the Rittenhouse verdict, gun control supporters face another, much more significant setback, with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court likely to strike down or seriously weaken a New York state law that imposes strict limits on carrying weapons outside the home.

Gun laws have generally become more permissive; open carry is now legal, to one degree or another, in many states. A majority of Americans support stricter gun laws, but a Gallup poll last year showed support for gun regulation, which surged after a mass shooting in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has ebbed during the coronavirus pandemic and a spike in violent crime. Other polls have showed continued strong support.

Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, which monitors firearm-related homicides and suicides, said “extreme gun culture” had become pervasive.

“Only in America can a 17-year-old grab an assault weapon, travel across state lines, provoke a fight, kill two people and injure another, and pay no consequences,” he said after the verdict Friday in Kenosha, Wis.

Some Black Americans viewed the verdict as more evidence of racial disparity in judicial outcomes, a perspective that extended to the discussion around the right to bear arms.

The Rev. Al Sharpton contrasted the acquittal of Rittenhouse with the federal government’s aggressive, at times violent, campaign against the Black Panthers and other Black groups that cited self-defense and the Second Amendment as justifications for arming themselves.

The National Rifle Association, which has backed “stand your ground” laws to expand the legal defense for gun owners who shoot people they perceive to be threatening, responded to the verdict by posting portions of the Second Amendment on its Twitter page. “A well regulated militia shall not be infringed,” it wrote, minutes after the jury delivered the verdict.