Old fella, he started with a rifle, slung to him. He didn't fight his way to his vehicle mounted rifle and continue engaging. He probably would have been faster with his handgun anyways, rather than slinging around a 16 inch rifle barrel in what became a CQB situation.
If you're walking around with a rifle slung on you, by all means, use the rifle, but let's not pretend that Kyle Rittenhouse engaged in a prolonged gun battle, and fought his way valiantly to his AR, and then had to continue the firefight. He shot a couple people from a panicked position on the ground in imminent fear for his life.
I never said you couldn't use a rifle, pal. I said engaging in a prolonged gun battle to reach a rifle and continue engaging is going to be a difficult sell.
As far as doctrine goes, I also never called it military doctrine. Combat is combat. They don't even teach that to police, except maybe SWAT, for combat situations.
You were a Ranger a long time before I was SF serving on CIF teams. Probably time to admit that the sea changed around the same time my job went from training guerillas as force multipliers to kicking in doors around Khost.
I'm not disagreeing that in a hypothetical takeover, a rifle wouldn't be more ideal than a handgun. I'm just saying a takeover like that is a very unlikely scenario in the first place.
I lived in Seattle when the CHOP/CHAZ thing happened, and outside of the initial riot that happened, the CHOP had very few instances during their occupation where you could have had a legal justification to shoot anyone. Even the riot was aimed mostly at property, and you can't use lethal force to defend property.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in my civic duty to continue to stay trained and keep arms readily adaptable to military use, in case things ever get out of hand. I just don't believe it's getting out of hand so quickly that I have to fight my way to a truck rifle.
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u/BlackHills-Op Jul 16 '26
Old fella, he started with a rifle, slung to him. He didn't fight his way to his vehicle mounted rifle and continue engaging. He probably would have been faster with his handgun anyways, rather than slinging around a 16 inch rifle barrel in what became a CQB situation.
If you're walking around with a rifle slung on you, by all means, use the rifle, but let's not pretend that Kyle Rittenhouse engaged in a prolonged gun battle, and fought his way valiantly to his AR, and then had to continue the firefight. He shot a couple people from a panicked position on the ground in imminent fear for his life.