PolitiFact Slammed for ‘Fact-Check’ on Rittenhouse Legally Owning Gun

PolitiFact has been slammed for a “fact-check” that claimed to readers that Kyle Rittenhouse’s possession of a firearm was illegal — after the judge presiding over his murder trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, threw out the weapons charge against him.

Rittenhouse, 18, was initially charged with possession of a dangerous weapon as a minor, but the judge tossed it after the charge — and the site’s claim — didn’t hold up in court.

Judge Bruce Schroeder agreed with Rittenhouse’s lawyers that the ban on minors with dangerous weapons only applies to those weapons that are short-barreled, unlike the one that the teen used to fatally shoot two men and injure a third.

In the aftermath of the shooting, PolitiFact had challenged a claim made by a Facebook user who wrote, “Carrying a rifle across state lines is perfectly legal.”

A Facebook post says, “At 17 years old Kyle (Rittenhouse) was perfectly legal to be able to possess that rifle without parental supervision.” That's False. https://t.co/Rxtw5rkFZb

— PolitiFact Wisconsin (@PolitiFactWisc) August 28, 2020

This fact check was always wrong, but now that the weapons charge has been dropped it's officially PANTS ON FIRE https://t.co/fl4OH6dnn1

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) November 15, 2021