Chuck Todd on Rittenhouse Verdict: ‘Gun Owners With a Certain Ideology May Feel Incentivized’

MSNBC and NBC News anchor Chuck Todd reacted to Kyle Rittenhouse being acquitted on all charges this Friday, questioning how the verdict will impact “gun owners with a certain ideology.”

Todd was joined by MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance and civil rights lawyer David Henderson following the jury’s verdict, which found Rittenhouse, who killed two men during protests in Kenosha last year, not guilty on all five charges.

Vance attributed the verdict to a “failure of narrative by the prosecution,” arguing that the issue of public safety should have been a bigger topic throughout the trial.

“And this is an important conversation to have nationwide, as we think about not just healing communities, but making them safer, preparing them for the next incident because there will be more protests,” she continued. “There will obviously be more Kyle Rittenhouses out in these crowds. The question we now have to face is, are we safer after this verdict, are we safe if we let someone like Kyle Rittenhouse kill people and then claim self-defense?”

Vance then asked if the United States is in need of better laws that are meant to protect Americans, adding, “And the answer is clearly yes after today.”

Todd added: “It’s pretty obvious to me, more people, the next time there’s a protest of some sort, and it may get politicized, that gun owners with a certain ideology may feel incentivized now, may feel even emboldened. And that does seem to be an uncomfortable message that may be received by some.”

Henderson went on to call that possibility the “obvious message” from the Rittenhouse trial, adding that he has been unable to find the verdict’s “silver lining.”

“A kid had an AR-15 strapped to his body, and he argued that on the theory that I may face lethal force in the future because a person may — who never touched him — get his hands on my gun and wrestle it away and then once he’s wrestled away, turn and kill me. Based on that theory of a potential fear in the future, the jury found he was justified in shooting and killing someone in the present,” Henderson added.

“So, I think that yes, if you take your gun to a protest in the future, or any heated situation, I think you’re inclined to feel that you are within your rights to use it, and that’s very dangerous for all of us.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.