By Deon J. Hampton and Erik Ortiz -
NBC News
The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse of all charges, including murder, is not expected to end the debate in the United States about gun control and the Second Amendment, nor the heated talks about when armed protection of a community it crosses the line of vigilantism ["taking justice into one's own hands"].
Rather, the concern is what will come next.
Groups opposing gun violence and some Second Amendment experts who followed the trial, in which Rittenhouse claimed to have acted in self-defense when he fatally shot two men and wounded a third during a night of rioting in August. In 2020, they raised concerns that people can take advantage of the outcome and
feel empowered to defend their neighborhoods with guns,
particularly during volatile events.
[Biden expresses his "anger and concern" over the exoneration of Kyle Rittenhouse and Trump claims he acted in self-defense]
A trial in Georgia, in which three white men face murder and other charges in the persecution and deadly shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, centers on the defendants acting against someone they assumed was a threat. , and they tried to arrest him in a citizen arrest and fatally shot him.
They feared, according to them, that the black man running in their neighborhood in February 2020 would grab a shotgun.
The verdict in favor of Kyle Rittenhouse generates mixed opinions in the country
Nov. 20, 202101: 49
“The Rittenhouse trial, the story of the Ahmaud Arbery murder, and now the direction the Supreme Court appears to be taking on carrying guns outside the home all point in the same worrying direction:
many people, especially white men, come to believe that they have right to carry assault weapons to jump into dangerous situations
and then claim they are threatened, ”said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and author of
The Second Amendment: A Biography .
"It is a recipe for racially charged violence
,
" he
added.
Although the trials of Rittenhouse in Wisconsin and the three Georgia men - Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and his neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan - were based on similar
self-defense
allegations
,
the prosecution in both cases attempted to convince the respective juries that the accused acted as vigilantes who took justice into their own hands.
["Trump legitimizes the dark side of human nature": Biden talks to Jacob Blake and his family on their trip to Kenosha]
That argument did not sit well with trial observers like Emily Cahill, who lives near Chicago and traveled to Kenosha to support Rittenhouse while the jury deliberated.
Throughout the week, he stood firm in front of the local court saying he believed Rittenhouse, who was 17 when he armed himself with an AR-15 type rifle and arrived in Kenosha amid protests against racial injustice,
acted to protect himself.
"We need armed civilians to be able to protect themselves and the community when the government does not
,
"
said Cahill, 33, who made a sign that read "Self-defense is not a crime."
“There has to be a bridge between the community and the police,” he said, adding that he believes that more guns on the streets and community policing can deter criminal activity.
A protester carries an assault rifle outside the Kenosha County Courthouse during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on November 17, 2021.BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS
A state advocacy group, Wisconsin Gun Owners Inc., which opposes all kinds of gun control, has been calling for stronger self-defense laws for much of this year.
“The community is learning that sometimes we have to take personal responsibility for
the protection of our communities,”
said Thomas Leager, the group's executive director, adding that citizens have to be able to protect
property and businesses.
But that's exactly what worries Ryan Busse, a former gun industry executive who is now the top political adviser to Giffords, the gun safety group founded by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
Although in the Rittenhouse case the judge often repeated: "this is not a political trial," a partisan political divide embedded in national issues ranging from race and police to education and vaccines, combined with the propagation of ideologies. Internet extremists,
militia groups
who openly carry firearms in state Capitol protests, and the commercialization of weapons under names like Ultimate Arms Warmonger and Urban Super Sniper do nothing more than advance the idea of
"self-righteousness
,
"
Busse said.
Kyle Rittenhouse speaks with his attorney after being acquitted of all charges in Kenosha County AP court
Additionally, the Supreme Court heard arguments earlier this month in a case over whether the Constitution establishes the right to carry a weapon outside the home. The majority of the conservative court was skeptical of a New York law requiring a special need to be shown to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon in public and suggested that it believes the legislation violates the law of the Second Amendment to "have and carry weapons". The high court is expected to issue a decision on the case in June next year.
The Rittenhouse trial and these other cases are "fueling this idea that
individual citizens have to be out there,
not as part of a functioning society, but as these
unscrupulous dispensers of justice,"
said Jeri Bonavia, executive director of the WAVE Education Fund, a Wisconsin-based organization focused on preventing firearm deaths and injuries.
Rittenhouse's acquittal can be viewed as a victory for gun owners and advocates, said Ion Meyn, associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rittenhouse's acquittal can be seen as a victory for gun owners and defenders
ION MEYN, Professor of Law
Meanwhile,
arms sales in the United States have soared
in the past year amid the pandemic.
Nearly 39.7 million firearms background checks were conducted last year, according to the FBI database, up from 28.4 million the year before and more than double the 14.4 million in 2010.
The flood of more gun owners could be a dangerous mix in certain situations, and
Rittenhouse's acquittal can be viewed as a victory for gun owners and advocates,
said Ion Meyn, associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin. -Madison.
“We are giving more rights to someone who has a gun than to someone unarmed on the street.
And we are giving you more legal protection to use deadly force.
It is a dangerous precedent, ”he warned.
"It is not a right to defend oneself, it is a right to shoot people," he
declared.
But it is also lost in the conversation whether events in Wisconsin and Georgia will motivate state legislators to reevaluate laws surrounding self-defense, citizen arrests and open possession of firearms.
In the wake of Arbery's murder, Georgia repealed a pre-Civil War citizen arrest law, which ends the right of individuals to detain someone if a crime is committed in their presence "or within their immediate knowledge."
The law, however, does not apply to businesses that witness criminal activity on their premises.
One of those accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery says he shot in self-defense
Nov. 18, 202100: 35
Most states have some variation of the citizen detention law, according to Reuters, and Georgia is one of the states that revised its legislation after Arbery's death.
Meanwhile, some states have moved to expand the so -
called laws
"stand firm"
( "stand your ground"), including Ohio, the Republican governor, Mike DeWine, signed in January legislation that eliminates the duty to retreat before shooting in self-defense anywhere, including businesses, places of worship, or during protests.
Kyle Rittenhouse Case: Protesters Fight Outside Court
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"It is vital that law-abiding citizens
have the right to legally protect themselves
when faced with a life-threatening situation," he said earlier this year.
But Busse said those life-threatening situations are not so clear cut, as the chaotic events of the Rittenhouse and Arbery cases make clear.
Introducing weapons in any setting, he added, could once again become explosive in the right circumstances.
"I don't think there is going to be another Kyle Rittenhouse," he said.
And he sentenced:
"There will be many more."
Deon J. Hampton reported from Kenosha, and Erik Ortiz from New York.