Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce recently put together a Twitter thread discussing the Kyle Rittenhouse case and its implications with regard to guns in America:
The more Rittenhouse sinks in, the more unhinged today's America seems. Leave aside the debate over race narrative. No other democratic system would let teenagers, or citizens of any age, go where they please with ultra-lethal weapons, discharge, then claim self-defence. Thread
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
There’s no parallel universe in which an adolescent with a military-designed assault weapon is making their own life safer, or anyone else’s. The fact that at least one of Rittenhouse’s victims was armed reinforces the point. People with guns attract and create violence.(2)
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
But what’s most nuts is that public safety isn’t America’s main concern here. Instead we have a meta-debate about biases of each side’s coverage – one making a hero out of an overgrown-child vigilante, the other fitting him into a white supremacist narrative. (3)
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
That’s what’s most dispiriting about this saga: America’s warring cultural elites are primed to filter so much that happens through the lens of group condemnation (though I’ve little doubt that had Rittenhouse been black, he would likely have died before firing his 2nd shot). (4)
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
Had this happened in almost any other democracy his defence would be laughed out of court. Rittenhouse, or his friend, would have been breaking serious laws the moment he bought that semi-automatic, as would the seller, and would face jail. (5)
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
Instead he legally killed two people and will doubtless get rich from it. The fact that public safety is barely an afterthought to the Rittenhouse killings (with some strong exceptions, notably @fmanjoo https://t.co/Nzdw74sQ0g) may be more noticeable to foreigners. (6)
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
America has given up on what almost every other democracy would now be trying to do – find common ground to stop horrific things from happening. The US is too far gone down the rabbit hole of which identity politics to blame (& which pigmentations to slander) to act wisely. (7)
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
I say this as a friend & admirer of America – also aware I’m probably barking into the ether. Twitter drives so much of this toxicity but it's not clear which, if any, medium nowadays would do otherwise. Apologies to my numerous American friends who know all this too well. Ends
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) November 24, 2021
Edward’s just trying to be a friend, guys.
And Slate national correspondent Will Saletan, for one, really appreciates it:
This thread nails the Rittenhouse tragedy. We tried to make it a story about race, when it was fundamentally about guns.
You don’t have to be a bigot to acknowledge that he wasn’t a murderer. And you don’t have to be woke to admit that he escalated the danger by bringing a gun. https://t.co/2GrLo9yfiO
— Will Saletan (@saletan) November 24, 2021
Hats off to Will Saletan for having parlayed hot takes like that into a successful career. Not just anyone can do that. It takes a special kind of talent.
Original narrative failed spectacularly, time to pivot https://t.co/JrspSIYJAh
— Reluctant centrist (@Reluctantcentr2) November 24, 2021
Pivot like the wind.
That woman invited sexual assault by carrying mace.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 24, 2021
If Rittenhouse had been carrying mace instead of a gun, he wouldn’t have testified that he had to fire because the mace was about to be seized and used to kill him.
Guns aren’t mace.
— Will Saletan (@saletan) November 24, 2021
Look at Will … he thinks he just dropped the mic.
Bless his heart:
Thank you for admitting it was self defense.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 24, 2021
Will seriously didn’t even realize what he just said. It … it all happened so fast!
It's not fundamentally about guns. It's fundamentally about situations of lawlessness and the concept of self-defense. If Rittenhouse had smacked Rosenbaum in the head with a 2×4 instead of shot him, he'd be just as dead, and Rittenhouse would be just as not-guilty. https://t.co/lWhX4aBGbY
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 24, 2021
The view that it's fundamentally about guns is exactly why people are refusing to accept the acquittal even though it is the fully right decision. Because they're unwilling to admit that anyone could ever use a rifle like that for a just cause.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 24, 2021
https://twitter.com/JesterofWoe/status/1463525955994103813
If the rioters had stayed home, there wouldn't have been a riot. https://t.co/rLLkqQMnou
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 24, 2021
Somehow the root cause is Rittenhouse going there and not the riot happening in the first place.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 24, 2021
Why can’t Saletan et al. just ignore their awful partisan instinct for once and admit that Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t the bad guy here? Is it really so difficult to conceive of a situation in which a young armed man might need a gun to defend himself from lawless, violent rioters?
NARRATOR: It was fundamentally about self-defense, clown. https://t.co/qSlSC1MYOh
— RBe (@RBPundit) November 24, 2021
"escalated the danger". Funny how they just gloss over that. Why was there danger there to begin with?
— Daniel (@ddwalk34) November 24, 2021
Yes, that went really well.
— Will Saletan (@saletan) November 24, 2021
He didn't get beaten or shot by a mob of rioters, so… yes.
— 🎅🏻jimtreacher.substack.com🎄 (@jtLOL) November 24, 2021
Will seems to have conveniently omitted discussing an important piece of information about the Rittenhouse case:
Grosskreutz was also armed.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 24, 2021
Yeah but [WAVES HANDS FRANTICALLY]
— 🎅🏻jimtreacher.substack.com🎄 (@jtLOL) November 24, 2021
Can’t just wave that detail away, Will. Sorry.
I wish leftists like @Saletan would just openly admit that they believe the left should be allowed to destroy property and ruin livelihoods with zero pushback.
It would at least be honest.
— RBe (@RBPundit) November 24, 2021
And we’d at least be able to muster a shred of respect for his honesty.
Alas.
This had nothing to do about guns, you seem to ignore the riots and looting escalating the way it did where citizens had to put matters in their own hands
You excuse them on purpose because you're a a kahba just like your own mother https://t.co/YF6ltbb0EJ
— Ahmed Al Assliken (@assliken) November 24, 2021
We’re not entirely sure what that means, but we can’t help but agree.