East Idaho GOP committee auctions perverse fantasy: chance to shoot with Rittenhouse | Opinion

In August 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two who were unarmed.

This Saturday, he will be the featured speaker at the Bonneville County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day fundraiser. And the party will raise more money by auctioning off the chance to go shooting with him at a local indoor range the next morning.

The Bonneville GOP has a long tradition of inviting conspiracy theorists and right-wing provocateurs to its Lincoln Day events: Glenn Beck, Candace Owens, James O’Keefe, Trevor Loudon and Dinesh D’Souza, to name a few recent examples.

This year’s inclusion of Rittenhouse is something different. Rittenhouse is known for one thing: shooting people.

Auctioning off the chance to go to the shooting range with him is obscene.

Rittenhouse came to Kenosha with his AR-15 with the stated intention of protecting local businesses from unrest following the police shooting of Jakob Blake. The three men Rittenhouse shot, Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz were profiled by NPR following the trial.

Rosenbaum, who had a history of severe mental illness and had just been discharged after a suicide attempt, chased Rittenhouse through a parking lot after seeing him armed. He threw a plastic bag filled with toiletries at Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse turned and shot him four times, killing him.

Huber, along with many others, then chased Rittenhouse because they thought he was an active shooter. Huber hit him with a skateboard. Rittenhouse shot him once, killing him.

Grosskreutz was also chasing Rittenhouse and pointed a handgun at him. Rittenhouse shot him, as well. He lived.

It happened fast, and there was considerable ambiguity and conflicting testimony, which meant lots of room for reasonable doubt. The central question was what was going on in Rittenhouse’s head — did he believe his life was in danger? — which is ultimately unknowable.

But why travel across state lines with a gun unless you’re looking for a fight? And two of the victims were unarmed.

I was disappointed but not shocked when the jury returned a not-guilty verdict on all counts.

I suspect that verdict is the real draw.

Rittenhouse represents something many have dreamed about: the chance to kill one of those Antifa or Black Lives Matter thugs they’ve never seen — and to be ruled justified for doing so. They want to be near him because he’s lived out their fantasy, a perverse version of a kid meeting his favorite baseball player.

Playing that bit part, at age 20, isn’t good for him.

On the lucrative conservative speaking circuit, Rittenhouse will have no chance for repentance or redemption. He was 17 at the time of the killings. Lots of people eventually move past something terrible they did at that age after a long, hard look in the mirror.

But bouncing back and forth between Tucker Carlson and GOP fundraisers, Rittenhouse’s life will remain centered on those killings. People want his autograph because he killed. They want to take a selfie with him because he killed. They want to hang out with him at a shooting range because he killed.

At one point, Rittenhouse said this is exactly what he did not want.

After his acquittal, Rittenhouse requested that the AR-15 he used to shoot three men, along with the clothes and face mask he was wearing when he did it, be returned to him. His attorneys told the court he wanted to destroy them so that they couldn’t become a “trophy” for some collector. Police ultimately ran his rifle through a shredder.

Fast forward to this Sunday morning in Idaho Falls, where Rittenhouse will be signing autographs, taking selfies and hanging out at a gun range that specializes in renting out fully automatic weapons, so you can spray rounds into a paper target with the outline of a person on it from a few feet away.

The bidders get a trophy.

Rittenhouse gets a paycheck.

On to the next stop.

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman based in eastern Idaho.