Almost five years after using an AR-15 to defend himself against an angry mob of Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kyle Rittenhouse is making headlines again, albeit fewer, as the newest celebrity employee of a North Florida gun shop. Rittenhouse was just 17 at the time of the shooting, in which he wounded one attacker and introduced two more to the room temperature challenge. The incident and the ensuing high-profile trial made national headlines, ultimately leading to his acquittal on all counts, a decision that made waves across the country.
Now 22 years old, Rittenhouse has become the center of an advertising campaign as the latest full-time employee at Gulf Coast Gun and Outdoors in Milton, Florida. In a February 5 post on their Facebook page, Gulf Coast Gun and Outdoors showed off their new hire and invited customers to come into the store and buy their next gun from the “Kenosha Kid.”
“Come buy your next pew pew from Kyle Rittenhouse!!! So come on down, meet the Kenosha Kid and get a great deal on all your 2A needs. Kyle will even ring you up … Come welcome Kyle to the GCG team,” the gun shop posted on Facebook.
In January, GCG owner Chris Smith announced on Facebook Live that Rittenhouse would be a special guest for the store’s 10th-anniversary celebration that offered up a grand prize firearm “designed by” Rittenhouse called the KR-15, which features Rittenhouse’s signature on the side and is sold in the store as a GCG exclusive. The prize included 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and every gun purchased throughout the anniversary weekend included a complimentary autographed copy of Rittenhouse’s book, “Acquitted.”
“Kyle loved you guys so much, he decided he wants to work at GCG full time,” the Facebook post read.
Rittenhouse is originally from Antioch, Illinois, but according to his X account, he currently lives in Pensacola, Florida, a short trip to his new grind in Milton. GCG social media posts about Rittenhouse have received thousands of mixed reactions, from unwavering support to posts that should land people on watch lists.
Interestingly enough, the latter of those posters don’t seem to take issue with the abject criminal history of Rittenhouse’s attackers. One of them had been sentenced to a decade in prison on child molestation charges and spent just over 14 years in prison for dozens of disciplinary infractions. Additionally, he had pending charges for domestic abuse and jumping bail at the time of his death. Another attacker was convicted of domestic abuse and disorderly conduct in 2018 and did prison time in 2012 for choking his brother. The surviving attacker testified at the trial that he pointed his handgun at Rittenhouse before being shot and that he was not permitted to carry the concealed weapon at the time of the incident.
The c:om:mun:ist/fa:scis:t/pro:gres:sive, want to destroy this guy. Just like they want to destroy George Zimmerman.
There is nothing wrong with trained and responsible teenage children carrying guns. It should become very normal and acceptable in American society for children to carry guns.
i was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be antioch (ill.), but hoped perhaps racine or something.
Good for him, He was persecuted by the left. I wish him well.
I like the guy, but TBH I find it curious that he chose to destroy his gun shortly after the Kenosha incident and the media hullabaloo that followed, but now works in a LGS which is offering a gat “customized” by Kyle himself.
Haz, I can’t speak for KR, but I believe that destroying that AR was part of his healing process. Anybody that had to endure the trauma of that night’s events + jail time + court + woke media vitriol, needs to do whatever they deem appropriate to get past it.
I can’t imagine either of my boys going theu something like that at that age.
God bless him on his path forward.
I agree.
I wouldn’t have destroyed it if it were me and my gun. But I get the whole healing process thing.
I had assumed he would never pick up a firearm again.
I’ll be sure to avoid that store.
“I’ll be sure to avoid that store.”
Ok, unimaginative two-first-names guy, why?
good call. You probably can find something more suitable for your defensive needs at Victoria’s Secret or Lane Bryant.
… or Troll City’s newest location in Mynr, New York
Are you sure it’s not actually in Missy-sippi ?
Good for Kyle! Happy he left ILLannoy🙄
Notice how many fewer protests we had after those 3 antifa storm troopers got Rittenhoused?
Turns out looting and burning minority owned businesses is a lot less fun if you put your life on line as a result.
“Notice how many fewer protests we had after those 3 antifa storm troopers got Rittenhoused?”
Yep, 2 down for good and the other a gimp for life.
I swear, that still image of his bicep being converted to a pink mist is one of the most beautiful pics of all time… 😉
Really Geoff, seeing someone get shot is a beautiful picture?
The only one’s that got shot were fascist stormtroopers on a rampage. They earned their fate.
They may have earned their fate. As for myself I do not see death or mutilation as a pretty picture.
What would Jesus think?
Never met the man. Couldn’t say.
Maybe you should read the Bible?
Forgiveness, love, turn the other cheek, love your enemies, stuff like that, He was a real peacenik.
I’ve often pondered would some give up their guns if there truly was peace on earth.
I’ve come to the conclusion that most here on TTAG would fight to the death before they did that.
Why give up your guns if there is peace on earth? Guns are not just for war. Recreation is a valid use of guns.
I’m a history buff. Weapons of all types figure large in human history. I would never give up my guns, knives or bows.
And beat your swords into plow shears.
Don’t own a sword. My son has two. He’s also a church goer. But he ain’t a farmer.
That whole thing about beating swords into plowshares, I think that’s just somebody’s blathering after overindulging in too much altar wine.
Jesus was a carpenter. Surely he knew how much time, energy, and money it would cost to do that. Why not make the plowshare of new ore? Then you would have a sword AND a plowshare. Each to its own purpose.
I’m sure Jesus didn’t waste time reforging his hammer into a saw and back again for every piece of furniture he made. He surely had BOTH. And he didn’t melt down his wood planer to make nails; that would have just been silly.
If a fella “needs shootin'”, as the saying goes.
And that fella needed shootin. I wonder if he still has his arm.
He really is a hero. He’s actually saved countless lives. You’re absolutely right. After his self defense the riots drastically subsided saving lives and livelihoods.
You notice how those antifa storm troopers were not attacking businesses connected to the fascist left billionaires like gates, bezos soros, bloomberg etc.
They were looting and burning, for the most part, small businesses owned by minorities.
Its been that way since the 60’s.
Hey Xeo , Joel 3:16 King James Version (1611) says ” Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears;
let the weak say ” I am strong.”
Just sayin’
“The surviving attacker…”
There are actually *two* surviving attackers. Oddly enough, the super aggressive prosecutor never went after those violent criminals. It’s almost as if this was a political prosecution. Cue the brain dead chant: “no one is above the law.”
Some idiot will file a lawsuit.
I have to imagine that a non-trivial number of evil/crazy people among us are motivated to “punish” Mr. Rittenhouse in spite of the fact that a jury found him not-guilty on criminal charges for his actions. That being the case, I think it unwise for Mr. Rittenhouse to maintain such a publicly visible profile.
I believe a more prudent course going forward for Mr. Rittenhouse would be to legally change his name and keep a low profile, staying out of the public eye as much as reasonably possible.
After facing down death in his very face, most people don’t just scurry off and hide in a mouse hole somewhere.
Besides, it’s not like he’s in witness protection or anything. He’s just in America. Moving out of communist Chicago is probably all he needed to do.
My sister has a condo 30A in South Walton and a friend owns a beach house there also. I’ll spend a couple of days there when most of the tourists are where they should be. Milton is not much further to the west. Maybe I’ll go meet the guy. I’ll say this, if he wanted to move to a place that appreciates what he had to do, as opposed to where he would be vilified, N FL was a good choice.
Florida gets a lot of revenue from those tourist you so despise does it not?
Xdduly, yes it does. They can keep it. I’m willing to pay more taxes if they would stay home. I remember Florida before the theme parks and spring break. It was better. When Trump finishes the boarder wall with Mexico he should build one from Jax to Pensacola. An armed flotilla of the coast of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico wouldn’t be a bad idea either. And it is the Gulf of Mexico. Always will be.
its actually been, in ‘country ownership’ sense, the ‘Gulf of America’ ever since international boundary were defined. So naming it ‘Gulf of America’ is correct.
‘Gulf of Mexico’ was just the traditional’ name applied before the international boundary were defined.
.40, ask any Florida Cracker. It’s the Gulf of Mexico.
I call “Gulf of America”.
What’s my authority? I pay taxes in America. A lot of taxes.
“The room temperature challenge” .
Death is funny Hah Hah Hah.
Until it happens to one of your loved ones.
Oh wait guns can’t die.
Sick.
A tad bit sensitive. Or just being a drama queen?
Black humor is a must if you’re in the trenches.
trenches are latrines
We all get covered in shit at times.
That we do.