He should have stayed home.
***
What did this boy think would happen if he carried an AR-15-type rifle into the chaos that warm summer night?
With so little training or experience?
***
The police didn’t have good control of the streets when peaceful protests turned violent, and that opened the door to unprofessional, self-taught enforcers of the law.
Professional police officers know how to handle a weapon, and the best cops know how to de-escalate a tense situation — they know how to keep it from getting worse. A young vigilante knows none of these things.
***
We live in a society where guns have become a fetish for some people — where open carrying a weapon is a way to signal allegiance to your tribe. Where people with guns can cram into a statehouse in Michigan. Where gun-toting people who aren’t sworn officers can cram the streets in Kenosha.
And claim they are protecting the public.
It's an illusion. And it's dangerous."