The criminal complaint against the 17-year-old who allegedly shot three people in Kenosha is chilling. (I’ll offer more thoughts on this event later.) https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/kyle-rittenhouse-criminal-complaint/8f4a5b31354d0478/full.pdf

For now: the complaint removes any doubt that the shooter was callow and naive, and his (and others’) fate sealed primarily by his decision to go to a very dangerous place, in a state of utter fantasy about how his presence would affect the situation.

If someone tries to take a gun away from you by force, you have to consider that they might not merely intend to confiscate it for their own safety. Getting sucker-punched is never pleasant, but it is infinitely worse if you’re armed and have to worry about what happens next

This is a great reason not to carry a gun, especially if you are alone and in a place where you might get jumped. Volunteering yourself for this situation is completely crazy—obviously so, to most of us. We should ask why it was not obviously so to the shooter.

The complaint says that (according to a witness) the first victim “grabbed” at the gun, trying to take it. The second victim hit the shooter once with a skateboard while the shooter was on the ground. The third (nonfatal) victim had a gun in his hand and “move[d] towards” him.

If a man just killed someone with an AR-15, you have to consider that his intentions with that AR-15 might not be pure, and he might want to kill you or others. Do you then run after him and hit him with your skateboard? Shoot him (with your own tiny gun), just in case?

The correct answer is: run like hell.

Most people know this. Perhaps there is valor in trying to disarm a rifleman with a skateboard, but discretion is another matter. Where is the reality principle in all of this?

If you walk around with a gun, you incur a massive burden of moral responsibility. Most people correctly perceive the weight of that burden and refuse it. My sense is that a lot of people are deluded about the burden and accept it. The result is sometimes murder

My thoughts on “the Kenosha kid,” in @TheAtlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/kyle-rittenhouse-kenosha-and-sheepdog-mentality/615805/