Kyle Rittenhouse's Drama With Republican Heats Up

Kyle Rittenhouse, the man acquitted of killing two people with a gun, has continued his feud with a Republican who wants to change Texas' AR-15 laws.

Rittenhouse once again took aim at Texas state representative Justin Holland on X, formerly Twitter, even though the lawmaker has blocked him on the platform and recently claimed not to know who he is.

Holland wants to raise the age when people can buy the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle from 18 to 21 in Texas. But Rittenhouse, who became well known when at age 17 he fatally shot two people and injured a third in 2020 after traveling from his home in Illinois armed with an AR-15-style rifle to Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a racial justice protest, strongly disagrees with Holland.

He was acquitted in 2021 of homicide and the other charges against him after arguing that he acted in self-defense. After his acquittal, Rittenhouse became a poster boy for right-wing causes and a gun-rights activist.

Rittenhouse criticized the Texan earlier this month, only for Holland to block him. But now he has mentioned the lawmaker on X again.

It started when Rittenhouse shared a video of Holland at a campaign event explaining why he believed the law should be changed, and he promised he was "not a gun grabber, I am not trying to go after your Second Amendment rights."

Rittenhouse strongly disagreed and posted: "Rep. Holland (you blocked me so I can't tag you), your first problem with this statement is 'a perfect vote record with the nra'. The second problem is that if you can go off to war or enlist in the military you should be allowed to own a AR-15 or any other gun," he wrote on X.

Their feud escalated when Holland appeared on the Rock 30 podcast, where he was asked about Rittenhouse, and he simply replied: "Who is Kyle Rittenhouse?"

That exchange was then shared by the Texas Gun Rights group to X.

"@justinaholland pretends to not know who@ThisIsKyleR is. Holland is desperate, scared, and playing dumb to try and hide from his Anti-Gunowner voting record!" it captioned the post.

Rittenhouse replied to the post with a screenshot that showed Holland's account had blocked him on X and included the thinking face emoji, which is often used to imply suspicion or to question something.

Newsweek contacted Holland's office by email for comment.

In the video where Holland is speaking at the campaign event he explained that
he believed "there is a conversation to be had in the state of Texas, in this country, because our priorities are our communities and our priorities are our children in schools and I do believe that if you can't buy a handgun until you're 21, you can't smoke cigarettes until you're 21 and you can't drink beer until you're 21 [then] we can have a conversation about whether an 18-year-old should be able to go out and buy an AR-15."