Kyle Rittenhouse says he is destroying AR-15 rifle he used in Kenosha and wants nothing to do with it

Kyle Rittenhouse has decided to destroy the gun he used in the August 2020 shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, November 30, Rittenhouse appeared on the conservative podcast The Charlie Kirk Show and revealed that the AR-15 rifle he used when he shot dead two men and injured a third during a Black Lives Matter protest last year was being "destroyed right now."

"We don't want anything to do with that," he said.

On August 25, 2020, when Rittenhouse was just 17, he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz during BLM protests in Kenosha following the police shooting of a Black man.

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Rittenhouse was charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. He had denied all the charges and maintained he acted in self-defense.

The 18-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled 15 miles to "protect" the Kenosha community, was faced with potentially decades behind bars. He was ultimately acquitted of all charges on November 19 at his high-profile homicide trial.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Rittenhouse took aim at Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger who carried out a courtroom demonstration that entailed placing his finger on a gun's trigger. The teenager said the demonstration was not "Gun Safety 101."

Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy

"He was pointing the gun at the gallery, and I looked at my attorney," Rittenhouse said in reference to one of the attorneys on his defense team, Corey Chirafisi. "I said, 'Corey, that's Gun Safety 101.' Loaded or unloaded, treat a gun like it's loaded."

Rittenhouse also said on the podcast that he aspired to be a police officer when he was younger.

"Growing up, I wanted to be a police officer, to be able to help people when they're having bad days," he said.

Just two days after his acquittal, Rittenhouse did an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson in which he spoke out about his "support" for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Rittenhouse told the conservative TV personality: "This case has nothing to do with race. It had nothing to do with race, had to do with the right to self-defense."

He then insisted: "I'm not a racist person, I support the BLM movement and peacefully demonstrating."

Featured image credit: REUTERS / Alamy