Yinxi Li

Kyle Rittenhouse talks to the audience about his experience in Kenosha, WI, on April 16, 2024.

Gun-rights activist Kyle Rittenhouse was met with protesters holding signs and chanting outside the KIVA Tuesday evening, but inside the venue during his speech, he was met with plenty of praise. 

Turning Point USA, a nonprofit student organization that advocates for conservative politics in high schools and universities, invited Rittenhouse for an event called “The Rittenhouse Recap” to speak and answer questions from an audience of around 400 people. 

Rittenhouse spoke for nearly an hour. Much of the conversation followed his experience and actions at a Black Lives Matter demonstration following the death of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., in 2020, and Rittenhouse’s advocacy for an open-carry campus. Many audience members clapped and cheered in response to his advocacy stances.

“It’s really good to see all of you great patriots out here,” Rittenhouse said. “I know there’s some people in the crowd who don’t like me, but that’s fine. We have a right to peacefully protest.”   

When the University of Memphis’ Turning Point USA chapter invited Rittenhouse to speak March 20, he left early after audience hostility. 

In August 2020, during a Black Lives Matter protest, Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and wounded one other with an AR-15-style rifle, explaining that he acted in self-defense. He was later acquitted of all criminal charges. 

The line to enter the KIVA spanned several hundred people down from the barricaded entrance by The Student Center. To enter the venue, people needed to have reserved a free ticket, with their name appearing on the entrance list, and show a valid form of ID. 

Once receiving a wristband, attendees entered through the top left side of The Student Center and were guided toward the right side of the center down to the auditorium. Dozens of police and security lined the outside of the building and were present inside. 

After stepping onto the stage with his own security and his therapy dog, Rittenhouse addressed the crowd and then began his speech by discussing gun rights in America, focusing on the laws in Ohio and on the university’s campus. 

According to university policy, faculty, staff and students and all visitors are prohibited from possessing firearms on campus.  

Rittenhouse said young women have the right to protect themselves by carrying firearms, and he emphasized the need to pressure lawmakers to change laws that infringe on this right. 

“There’s young women out here specifically who are targets of sexual assault or kidnapping, and they live in the dormitories,” Rittenhouse said. “I was reading a couple of articles today, knowing that these young women aren’t allowed to protect themselves here. The university just doesn’t care. Your lawmakers, they don’t care, and I don’t think that’s okay.” 

Audience members were urged by Rittenhouse to send letters to their politicians, testify for bills and show up at the Capitol Building when they’re in session. He said all students should have the right to protect themselves on campus. 

“I don’t want to see all these young, innocent college students fall victim because the university doesn’t care about them,” Rittenhouse said. “There are so many great law enforcement members out there who are protecting us every single day, but we cannot bring a cop with us everywhere.” 

Rittenhouse then discussed what happened during the Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests in August 2020. 

Rittenhouse said he initially went to clean graffiti with his friend Dominick Black, when a business owner asked for them to help protect his store. They received a call later from another business owner asking them to put out fires and provide first aid for their store during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. 

While providing medical aid that night, Rittenhouse said he was tear gassed by law enforcement and threatened by a man named Joseph Rosenbaum. He said this led to him being chased and attacked by other protesters. 

“I couldn’t believe that this was happening,” Rittenhouse said. “I was terrified. I thought this is it, this is where I die.” 

In what Rittenhouse described, and later what a jury decided in November 2021, as an act of self-defense, he shot and killed Rosenbaum. 

“I shot him four times and he passed away,” Rittenhouse said. “Mr. Rosenbaum was a deadly threat that said if he catches me alone, he’s going to kill me. I was alone and he was trying to take my gun from me, and I exercised my right to defend myself.” 

During the demonstration, Rittenhouse shot and killed a man named Anthony Huber, who Rittenhouse said was going to hit him over the head with a skateboard. 

Rittenhouse wounded Paul Prediger, formerly known as Gaige Grosskreutz. He said Prediger, who attended a protest against Rittenhouse’s appearance on campus Tuesday afternoon, was pointing a gun at him.

After Rittenhouse relived his experiences, the event featured a Q&A session where an audience member asked Rittenhouse what his response is to protesters who believe he is spreading hate and division. Every answer Rittenhouse gave was followed by loud applause from more than a majority of the audience members.

“Everybody here has the right to defend themselves and the right to live,” Rittenhouse said. “I don’t know how that’s spreading hate.”  

One audience member asked if Rittenhouse would have done anything differently after looking back on the events that transpired. Rittenhouse said he would. 

“With hindsight being 20/20 as it is, if I would have known that I would have been violently and viciously attacked and be put on trial, I wouldn’t have gone there, but that does not change my right to self defense,” Rittenhouse said. 

While most people in the audience had questions in favor of Rittenhouse, one person in the audience asked a question in opposition. 

“Why show up to the protest with a rifle and get everyone riled up, knowing that they’re upset with police already?” the audience member asked. 

The question was met with cheering from dozens of people scattered throughout the crowded KIVA and boos from many others. Rittenhouse responded by saying protesters for the Black Lives Matter movement were also carrying rifles at the time. 

At the end of the speech, many people stood and applauded Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse, surrounded by security, was met with graphic language and booing as he was escorted to a vehicle outside of The Student Center. 

Members of the audience exited near the large group of protesters and were met with more boos and yells towards them, including one person shouting “white supremacists” towards the attendees.

For details on the protests during and after Rittenhouse’s campus appearance, click here. 

Kayla Gleason is a beat reporter. Contact her at [email protected].