I suppose the reason the cons are being so stubborn about the “three men attacked poor young Kyle” position is that it fits so well with their long story about how arming everyone makes everyone safer. As always, the truth is, more guns equals more deaths of innocents. One guys fires, ten guys pull out their guns hoping to be the good guy with a gun. Now eleven people are in a gunfight, shooting at each other. Who’s the good guy? Who’s the bad guy? A person Kyle was with that night actually fired a round. People heard the shot and saw Kyle there with his gun. They made a logical but wrong connection. The shot must have come from the gun they see. The simple reality is, many people in the area thought he was an active shooter and tried to disarm him.

The three men didn’t attack Kyle all together or at once, either. After Kyle killed Rosenbaum, he ran down the street. Others on the scene started shouting down the street that Kyle was, indeed, an active shooter. People tried to disarm him. In court, we got to hear what KYLE thought they might do. The same consideration wasn’t given to Kyle’s victims. THEY thought HE was the bad guy. In a very real sense, the people Kyle killed were in self-defense mode…and they thought they were defending themselves – and others – from Kyle.

You know why the confusion? Because Kyle was there with a gun. I don’t care how many times you say it or how fervently you pretend, more guns does NOT equal more safety. The truth is, I thought the trial was very carefully orchestrated to protect young Kyle, or rather, protect the NRA’s vision of “gun rights.” As the trial progressed, I became resigned to the idea that the young killer was going to walk free, with the exception of the illegal gun possession charge which I thought that oh-so-coddling judge would sentence to time served or probation or, perhaps, just a severe dressing down. The defense offered an out. They said Kyle COULD have that gun because the barrel was the right length for hunting. So, after closing arguments, the judge accepted that escape and threw the gun charge out. So the question never got asked, if Kyle is going to skate based on an hunting exception, what was Kyle hunting in downtown Kenosha that night?

Okay, so the verdict is the verdict and we’ll all learn to live with it. Well, those left alive, anyway…