When groups debated the impact of the verdict, the legislative deadlock showed no signs of change, and there were more and more weapons on the streets.

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Four days before Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of murder, the judge in his case filed a charge: illegally possessing a military semi-automatic rifle that he used to kill two people.

The revocation of misdemeanor charges with a maximum sentence of less than one year is a footnote to a larger drama. However, this is a persuasive reminder that, in addition to examining the polarization of race and self-defense in the country, the Rittenhouse case also highlights the increasing proliferation of guns on the streets of the United States and the failure of efforts to enact even a mild new bill. . Gun restrictions.

Although the government is still at a deadlock in gun control, the purchase of weapons has reached a record level: the loss of ammunition has become so crazy that the owner of the gun shop has to refuse to go to hunters for the big winter game season. The soaring rate of gun-related homicides during the pandemic overwhelmed the local police department, and the proliferation of homemade guns "ghost guns" reached epidemic levels in California.

Gun control advocates thought they would make some progress under President Biden’s leadership, but they met with strong opposition.

For the advocates, some gains have been made, including a pending ban on online sales of kits of guns and $5 billion in new violence prevention funds, which have been included in the society passed by the House of Representatives hours before the verdict is announced. In expenditure. But Congressional Republicans blocked efforts to expand federal background checks on gun buyers and restrict the sale of semi-automatic firearms, and even confirm the efforts of permanent directors of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Administration.

All of this restricts the White House from taking a series of administrative actions, including new regulations on ghost guns and accessories, called stabilizing brackets, which can effectively turn pistols into short-barreled rifles; regulatory changes may cause legal challenges. The ban on offensive weapons, like the one held by Mr. Rittenhouse, expired in 2004, and the Republicans prevented its renewal.

After Rittenhouse’s judgment, gun control supporters face another more significant setback. The conservative majority in the Supreme Court may overturn or severely weaken a New York State law that imposes strict restrictions on the carrying of weapons abroad. Family.

"We are very disappointed with the outcome of the trial, and we are really worried about its impact on the court cases, because they all deal with the same issue-whether people have the right to carry a loaded gun in public," T. Christian Heyne Said that he is a survivor of gun violence and is now a senior official of the Brady Movement, which is one of the largest gun safety organizations in the United States.

Gun laws have generally become more lenient: in many states, open carrying is now legal to some extent. Most Americans support stricter gun laws, but a Gallup poll last year showed that support for gun regulation after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida It has weakened during the pandemic, and violent crime has surged. Other opinion polls show continued strong support.

Josh Horvitz, executive director of the Gun Violence Education Fund, said that "extreme gun culture" has become widespread. "Only in the United States can a 17-year-old man take up an offensive weapon, cross state boundaries, start a battle, kill two people and hurt another, without any consequences," he was in Wisconsin on Friday. State Kenosha said after the verdict.

Some black Americans view the verdict as more evidence of racial differences in judicial outcomes, and this view extends to discussions around the right to bear arms.

The pastor Al Sharpton acquitted Rittenhouse and compared it with the federal government’s aggressive and sometimes violent campaigns against Panthers and other black groups that would defend themselves and the Second Amendment. The case as a reason to arm yourself.

"This is a huge double standard," he said in an interview, thinking that a black man who did what Mr. Rittenhouse did "will be convicted within two hours."

The National Rifle Association supports the "hold the ground" law, expands the legal defense for gun owners who fired at people they consider threatening, and responds to the verdict by posting parts of the Second Amendment on its Twitter page. Minutes after the jury delivered a verdict of not guilty on the five counts of Mr. Rittenhouse (including first-degree intentional homicide), it wrote: "A disciplined militia should not be violated."

Other advocates of gun rights are more outspoken. Republican Representative Madison Kausau of North Carolina urged supporters to become "armed" and "dangerous."

American gun owners have taken a position on the right side of the NRA, hoping to take advantage of the larger group’s recent leadership and financial difficulties, and announced on Friday their intention to send a new AR- to Mr. Rittenhouse, who is now 18 years old. 15 rifles to reward him for his "defense" of the Second Amendment.

"Join us to express our gratitude to Kyle Rittenhouse, and thank you for being a national gun owner and a fighter for the right to self-defense!" the organization wrote in a post on its Twitter page.

The legal concept of self-defense—a doctrine that the United States has long cherished—is complicated by the continued proliferation of guns. The defendant can claim that they have the right to fire because other people can take weapons from them.

In the Kenosha shooting in August 2020, many people carried guns with them after the riots caused by the police shooting. One of the people Mr. Rittenhouse shot and wounded took out a pistol. A police officer testified that there were so many armed men wandering the area that when Mr. Rittenhouse raised his hands and approached, the police officer had nothing to do with the shooting.

In Wisconsin, a politically divided swing state, the reaction to the verdict may have been more moderate than elsewhere.

Nick Clark, president of the gun rights organization Wisconsin Kelly, said the ruling would only deepen the deadlock in his state's gun legislation. He said he doesn't think that a controversial and long-standing bill will allow Wisconsin gun owners to carry their weapons without special transportation permits to get new attention.

"If Kyle is found guilty, then people bringing guns to the scene of unrest in the city, trying to help people protect their property, will have a huge chilling effect," Mr. Clark said.

"But, you know, I think it will have a chilling effect anyway," he said. "I think people don't want to endure the kind of thing that Kyle just experienced. So I think they will think twice when this happens again."

Jerry Bonavia, the head of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Education Fund, a gun control organization, said that this decision was “a victory for the marginalized,” which would encourage right-wing groups to brandish weapons in protests, leading to more bloodshed.

"The vast majority of Americans will never carry guns in public, but now some people feel bold," she said. "The situation is dangerous."

Although the weapon charge against Mr. Rittenhouse was dropped, his 19-year-old friend Dominick Black bought him a Smith & Wesson military semi-automatic rifle at the Ace Hardware store in northern Wisconsin in May 2020. The case is still pending. A court hearing will be held next week.

Mr. Black faces two charges of deliberately supplying dangerous weapons to people under the age of 18 and causing death. If found guilty, he could face up to six years in prison, but legal experts say that Mr. Rittenhouse’s acquittal will be greatly strengthened. His defense.

However, the prosecutor’s failure to convict — and even failed to file a weapon charge against Mr. Rittenhouse — highlights the sometimes confusing and inconsistent enforcement of state gun laws.

In terms of guns, Wisconsin is roughly at the midpoint between a Republican-controlled state (systematic relaxation of rules) and a Democratic-controlled state that is increasingly tightly controlled.

Milwaukee defense lawyer Tom Griff, a former state attorney who specializes in gun cases, said that gun owners in the state are allowed to carry weapons in public because there is no law restricting them from doing so.

There is no doubt that state law ostensibly prohibits minors like Mr. Rittenhouse from owning guns.

But Mr. Griff said the state law contains a rule that exempts minors under certain circumstances, including their rifle barrels that are at least 16 inches long. Mr. Rittenhouse's Smith & Wesson M&P 15 has a 16-inch barrel. Mr. Griff said that he was not entirely sure how the clause was included in the books, but he believed that Judge Bruce Schroeder made the right judgment in the Rittenhouse trial.

In March of this year, after several mass shootings, President Biden vowed to push for a new ban on offensive weapons like the one used by Mr. Rittenhouse. Mr. Biden said that this “should not be a partisan issue.” But White House officials privately admitted that there is little chance of success in the deadlocked Senate, and the Democrats have not made this issue their top priority.