A comment on the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Wisconsin

As legal positivists like to say: What the law is, and what it ought to be, are two separate questions.  The law permitted Rittenhouse to interject himself into the scene of a civil disturbance, to carry a powerful rifle openly, and to defend himself against others.  The acquittal is not surprising, quite apart from the fact that the judge in the case was not very competent and a bit of a buffoon.  The problem here was not the trial, but the law:  the law should not permit civilians to own, let alone carry, military weapons, and it should impose a much higher standard for the use of deadly force for self-defense.  But this is America, and America is a very sick country alas.