Rittenhouse escaped accountability; society escapes common sense.
Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges on Friday. Some are celebrating the verdicts as a victory for freedom and the right to bear arms. Others find it one more example of injustice as human lives are devalued amidst the clamor for ever-expanding gun rights. From my perspective, there is nothing to celebrate here. A then 17-year-old boy brought a semi-automatic weapon to a protest event, ostensibly in support of law officers, using the weapon to kill two men and wound another. His lawyers argued self-defense. I guess I would argue that he should never have been in that position in the first place.
Across this country, it has somehow become acceptable for civilians to brandish such weapons in the public square, as we have seen not only on the streets of cities but also on the grounds of our state capitols. In my own state of Kentucky, citizens are allowed to carry weapons, either openly or concealed, into the state capitol. In an article in the Lexington Herald dated January 10, 2020, it was revealed that teachers gathering at the capitol to address educational and pension issues were not allowed to bring signs “on sticks into the building ‘because they were concerned the sticks could be used as dangerous weapons.’” Sticks in the hands of educators are deemed too dangerous. An automatic weapon in the hands of a 17-year-old boy, however, seems a reasonable accessory in an environment of protest.
This is where the argument often deteriorates into the usual talking points about Second Amendment rights vs. responsible gun control. The positions are so well documented and predictable that we seem to have lost interest in the dialogue. As with many such arguments these days, the extremes dominate these conversations, with common sense and human decency shouted down in the cause of personal rights. With the proliferation of weapons manufactured to bring carnage on a scale that seems to shock us less and less comes continuing opportunities for violence in places where such weapons and such violence were once prohibited. As long as we continue to shout at each other, however, instead of listen … as long as we continue to see truth not as the verification of facts but the malleable tool of personal and political opinion … as long as we allow ourselves to be pitted one against another by voices less interested in respect and the consideration of the greater good … as long as fear is weaponized and allowed to indiscriminately find acceptance on our streets and in places of public governance … as long as we relegate those different than us to an “other” status that devalues human life, we will find ourselves on a self-destructive path as the ideals of freedom and hope birthed in the guiding documents of our nation are cast aside.
It seems that 17-year-old boys are welcome to bring semi-automatic weapons into the arena of differing ideas, discharging those weapons without accountability. Kyle Rittenhouse should never have been in that position. I doubt he will be the last.
Dr James Abernathy is a retired minister, having served churches in Kentucky and Virginia, now living in Lexington.