While National Guard Troops Brace for Violence, Rittenhouse Judge Rules Teenagers (under 18/white) May Possess and Open Carry an AR-15, Dismissing his Gun Charge Before Closing Argument

From [HERE] The white judge presiding over the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse on Monday dismissed the gun charge the teen faced for being underage while publicly carrying the semiautomatic rifle he used to kill two and injure a third at a Kenosha, Wisconsin, protest last year, leaving five felonies for the jury to deliberate over after closing arguments.

Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder – who has drawn scrutiny and criticism for some of his actions during the high-profile trial – began jury instructions Monday morning by telling the jurors not to consider the misdemeanor gun charge Rittenhouse faced for being under 18 when possessing the AR-15 he wielded on Aug. 25, 2020, the night of the shootings.

Schroeder ruled Wisconsin’s open carry law is so confusingly written it can be interpreted to mean 17-year-olds can openly carry firearms as long as they’re not short-barrel rifles. He believed the jury could only convict if prosecutors proved the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle was less than 16 inches and has an overall length shorter than 26 inches.

The AR-15-style rifle Rittenhouse used to fatally shoot two men and injure a third is 35 inches long with a barrel length of 16 inches. Under defense questioning, a Kenosha police detective said he believed the Smith & Wesson M & P 15 was standard size.

In other words, as far as the judge is concerned teens (but not adults) may openly possess an AR-15 in public as the white teen did in this case because no law in Wisconsin prohibits it (he probably also only had in mind white teenagers because he is white).

The judge’s decision stunned prosecutors, who argued his interpretation of the law does not make sense. Under the judge’s interpretation, it would be illegal for a 17-year-old to carry brass knuckles in Wisconsin but permissible to carry a semi-automatic rifle.

“There’s no ambiguity,” assistant district attorney James Kraus told the judge Friday. “It is very clear that (17-year olds) are not to possess dangerous weapons.”

The state law says “any person under 18 years of age who possesses or goes armed with a dangerous weapon is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.” It defines a dangerous weapon as any “firearm, loaded or unloaded,” as well as metallic knucks, nunchaku, pointed stars and other items.

Rittenhouse’s defense team, however, successfully argued that there was a loophole in the law that says the misdemeanor only applies to 17-year-olds carrying short-barrel rifles. Carrying a short-barrel rifle at any age in Wisconsin is a felony, with exceptions for active military and police officers. [MORE]

Rittenhouse’s defense attorneys, Corey Chirafisi of Madison and Mark Richards of Racine, have long argued a loophole in the confusingly worded Wisconsin gun law relevant to the case allowed then-17-year-old Rittenhouse to possess the AR-15 in public because it is not a short-barreled rifle or shotgun.

The state, led by Assistant Kenosha County District Attorneys Thomas Binger and James Kraus, unsuccessfully countered that such an exception only applies to minor teens who are hunting and have proper hunting certification. Kraus reiterated Monday ahead of jury instructions that the defense’s interpretation “essentially swallows the whole statute.”

Schroeder sided with the defense, reestablishing for the record that he has problems with the statute’s wording. The judge offered to let the jury measure the AR-15 to determine if its length complied with the law, but the state’s attorneys conceded it does not technically qualify as a short-barreled rifle under the statute and the count was dismissed. The move comes after Schroeder last week dismissed a charge for violating an emergency curfew in place the night of the shootings. 

Prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with first-degree reckless homicide for killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36; first-degree intentional homicide for killing Anthony Huber, 26; and first-degree attempted intentional homicide for injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, 28. He is also charged with two counts of recklessly endangering safety with a dangerous weapon for firing two shots at an unknown man who kicked him while he was on the ground and for pointing his gun in the direction of Richie McGinniss, a videographer for the Daily Caller in the line of fire when Rosenbaum was shot.

Lesser included offenses like second-degree homicide were included in the jury instructions at the request of prosecutors. Rittenhouse's attorneys have argued self-defense on all the charges, saying their client shot while being chased and attacked by a crowd of protesters after fatally shooting Rosenbaum, who they say chased and threatened to kill the defendant.