Kyle Rittenhouse testified that when he chose a gun for his friend, Dominick Black, to purchase for him, he selected an AR-15 over a pistol because he believed he could not legally possess a pistol, and thought the AR-15 “looked cool.”
“So you’re telling us that the reason that you wanted Dominic to buy you an AR-15 as opposed to a pistol… the only reason is because you felt you couldn’t lawfully possess a pistol?” asked prosecutor Thomas Binger.
“Correct,” responded Rittenhouse.
“You didn’t pick out the AR-15 for any other reason?” continued Binger.
“I thought it looked cool, but, no,” responded Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse then agreed with the prosecutor that he had not purchased the weapon to hunt, or for home home protection, again saying he, “thought it looked cool if that’s a reason.”
Rittenhouse then took issue with the prosecutor’s suggestion that he might have chosen the AR-15 because similar weapons appear in first-person shooter video games, saying “there are guns in video games that resemble all guns.”
“It’s just a video game,” he said later in the exchange. “It’s not real life.”