Texas gun shop defends ‘not guilty sale’ after Rittenhouse trial
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas gun store and shooting range is standing by its “not guilty sale,” launched in “celebration” of Kyle Rittenhouse and the outcome of his murder trial.
Rittenhouse faced five charges after fatally shooting two men, and wounding another, during a night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but was acquitted last week on all charges.
Days of protests were spurred by the Aug. 23, 2020, shooting of an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer in Kenosha.
Rittenhouse has maintained since the Aug. 25, 2020, shootings that he acted in self-defense.
Saddle River Range, in Conroe, Texas, announced the “not guilty sale” in a text blast to customers on Nov. 19, the day the jury reached the verdict in Rittenhouse’s trial.
“We are celebrating the life that Kyle Rittenhouse now gets to live because he was able to defend himself without being penalized for it,” the range said in an Instagram post, clarifying the intent of the sale was not to “celebrate the loss of life.”
The sale was announced to customers only, and while some said they were bothered, most took no issue, owner Thomas Bolsch told McClatchy News in a phone interview. But as word spread about the sale, criticism, and support, soon started rolling in from near and far.
“We were going to have the sale anyway, and it just so happened that the day we were going to have it, the verdict was read,” Bolsch said. “I’m telling you, everyone in this gun store, all our members, we rejoiced on that.”
—Fort Worth Star Telegram
Rep. Welch launches Vermont Senate run with Sanders’ backing
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Peter Welch announced Monday he is running for Senate in Vermont, becoming a likely front-runner in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy.
“The result of this election will determine control of the Senate and with it, what we can accomplish for Vermont families,” Welch said in a statement. “If Vermonters elect me to the U.S. Senate, I will be ready to fight for progressive change on day one.”
As Vermont’s at-large congressman, Welch has represented the entire state in the House since he was first elected in 2006. He won an eighth term in 2020 by 40 percentage points, winning 67% of the vote. Welch serves as a chief deputy whip for the Democratic Caucus and is a member of the Progressive Caucus.
Welch was quickly endorsed by Vermont’s other liberal senator, Independent Bernie Sanders, which could help discourage a primary challenge from the left.
Welch is the seventh House Democrat to launch a bid for another office next year, and the fourth to launch a bid for the Senate.
Leahy, the longest-serving sitting senator who has spent nearly five decades in Congress, said last week he would retire after this term.
—CQ-Roll Call
Teddy Roosevelt statue moving from NYC museum to ND
NEW YORK — An American Museum of Natural History statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt, which has been criticized for glorifying colonialism and racial discrimination, is being relocated to North Dakota.
For 80 years the Roosevelt statue stood sentry outside the museum, riding a horse and towering over an African man and a Native American man. Roosevelt’s own descendants conceded the depiction is “troubling” and signed off on the statue’s removal.
Now, T.R. is headed for Medora, North Dakota, where the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is set to open in 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Although Roosevelt was born in Manhattan, and was governor of New York before running the country, his library will be built on a site near Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which preserves landscapes the pioneering conservationist visited in between 1883 and 1887.
“The Equestrian Statue is problematic in its hierarchical depiction of its subjects and should be removed,” Theodore Roosevelt V said in a statement. “Rather than burying a troubling work of art, we ought to learn from it. It is fitting that the statue is being relocated to a place where its composition can be recontextualized to facilitate difficult, complex and inclusive discussions.”
—New York Daily News
Gunman in custody after shootout on Chicago city bus
CHICAGO — A 21-year-old man who was riding a city bus through Chicago's Park Manor neighborhood late Sunday was in critical condition after he was shot in the chest by another man who tried to rob him, leading to an exchange of gunfire on the bus, according to police.
Officials said both the 21-year-old and the man who allegedly tried to rob him were armed with handguns and neither had a firearms owner identification card, or FOID card, nor a license to carry a concealed weapon.
Officers were called to the first block of East 71st Street in Park Manor around 10:40 p.m., where they learned there had been a shootout on the Chicago Transit Authority bus that had been headed east.
While riding the bus, the 21-year-old was approached by a man he didn’t know who “attempted to rob him at gunpoint,” according to a police media notification.
But the 21-year-old also was armed and he pulled out his own handgun and began firing at the would-be thief, police said. The other man fired his gun as well, striking the 21-year-old in the chest, officials said.
Both men exited the bus in the Park Manor neighborhood and the wounded 21-year-old was taken by Chicago Fire Department paramedics to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition.
—Chicago Tribune
