Kyle Rittenhouse’s college speaking tour continues to draw heavy opposition from campus communities.
“The Rittenhouse Recap,” as organizer Turning Point USA calls it, is set to take place at the University of Memphis and Western Kentucky University this month and at Kent State University in April.
The event web pages state that Rittenhouse will speak “about the importance of the Second Amendment and the lies of (Black Lives Matter).”
At Kent State, one person launched an online petition calling for the university to cancel Rittenhouse’s event. More than 1,100 people have signed it so far.
“As a member of the Kent State community, I am deeply concerned about an upcoming event hosted by student organization Turning Point USA, which will feature Kyle Rittenhouse as a guest,” Ally Greco wrote. “We must remember that our university should be a place for learning and growth – not for promoting divisive figures or ideologies that could potentially incite more violence.”
Rittenhouse was 17 when he fired a semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle at three men, killing two of them, during a demonstration in 2020 against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was acquitted of five charges, including intentional homicide, in 2021.
People online who learned about the speaking tour took issue with it since Rittenhouse’s acquittal carries controversy to this day.
In 1970, Kent State was the site of a deadly shooting carried out by the Ohio National Guard. Officers killed four college students and wounded nine other students who were protesting against news that the U.S. would be intensifying Vietnam War efforts by invading Cambodia.
The shooting triggered student strikes…
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