Today, the judge in the trial of the then 17-year-old shooter who shot three men, two fatally, in Kenosha dismissed the charge of carrying a firearm illegally as a minor. Reports indicate that the charge was dismissed due to an existing loophole in state law that allows minors to carry firearms over a certain barrel length. Everytown for Gun Safety released the following statement in response.
“Irrespective of the judge’s ruling today, it is clear that minors should not be carrying guns in public, especially at protests. If the shooter wasn’t openly carrying a firearm, this tragedy would not have happened, and we wouldn’t be here listening to debates over the loopholes in state law,” said Nick Suplina, Senior Vice President for Law & Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. “Because of Wisconsin’s lax gun laws, the shooter was openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle, which he said he purchased because it ‘looked cool’, and two people’s lives were taken and one person was wounded.”
