During the prosecution’s closing argument during the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial on Monday, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger picked up an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and shouldered it in a shooting position with the barrel pointed in the jury’s general direction towards the left side of the courtroom with his finger inside the trigger guard, in a violation of firearm safety etiquette.
“And then raises his left hand to the gun and points,” Binger said while picking up the rifle. “This is what we see in the video. Him putting the fire extinguisher on the ground and then raising the gun.” Binger’s claim that Rittenhouse was pointing his weapon at violent rioters prior to the shootings is based on a heavily disputed piece of grainy drone video footage.
Binger went on to implore the jury to convict Rittenhouse on all charges.
The prosecutor Thomas Binger held an AR-15 in the courtroom today to “demonstrate” what Kyle Rittenhouse did in Kenosha. 🤦🏻
(I have added corrections for the lay reader at home.) pic.twitter.com/vvfbZOCRY4
— Jason “Storm” Nelson (@Storm4Congress) November 15, 2021
Binger is now demonstrating that pic.twitter.com/AHwizCs6VZ
— Andrew Havranek (@Andrew_Havranek) November 15, 2021
Binger points the gun in (presumably) the jury's general direction (he had someone make sure it was empty first) pic.twitter.com/BVANdv2YfQ
— crabcrawler (@crabcrawler1) November 15, 2021
Binger giving a master class in gun safety pic.twitter.com/bBPEswVQ0R
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 15, 2021
Binger previously claimed that “you lose the right to self defense” if you are carrying a firearm:
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger made a bizarre claim during the prosecution’s closing statement in the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial on Monday, arguing that the teen lost his “right to self defense” because “you’re the one who brought the gun.” Binger’s argument is not supported by state or federal law, or hundreds of years of Constitutional precedent.
“You can’t claim self defense against an unarmed man like this,” Binger said. “You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one who brought the gun, when you’re the one creating the danger, when you’re the one provoking other people. The defendants fired four shots at Joseph Rosenbaum and caused five wounds total.”
