Kyle Rittenhouse, the motivational speaker who created a shooting shelter at his suburban Chicago home after the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre, said he has created a prototype of an AR-15 that will help authorities better investigate and prevent future gun-related tragedies.
“While the AR-15 is a legal firearm, that means that nearly all of the attempts to militarize our country and the recent White House summit were only justifiably dismissed,” Rittenhouse wrote in a piece for National Review. “These weaponized semi-automatic weapons allow civilians to be armed almost without fear of harm to themselves or their loved ones. We should expand upon the established infrastructure to address this threat and create a triage model that can be immediately activated and utilized by our police to effectively, quickly, and effectively disperse suspicious individuals.”
Rittenhouse said he used a similar home shelter he created during the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., to improve the construction and design of the weapon. It features two doors. On the top of the gun is an expansion plate and a lever, “with which the gun unlocks the inside of the cylinder” to allow investigators to enter and examine it.
The post went viral on social media.
“I’ve seen this post 300 times on Facebook,” Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner tweeted. “Sadness, anger, and pain. Think about all the people who have lost loved ones. Think about all the pain and suffering. Thoughts and prayers.”
Rauner added: “The criminals will always have access to more guns than the police officer or the criminal psychologist. What’s needed is for us to adopt a deterrent that is constitutionally acceptable and does not cause undue harm to law-abiding citizens.”
Rittenhouse said the Department of Homeland Security is studying his facility at his Chicago-area home because the site offers proof of concept in preventing future acts of violence. The site includes heat sensors that alert residents if the inside of the house is too hot or too cold. The specially installed system constantly monitors for air quality, heat and humidity and reacts accordingly.
“The response was tremendous,” Rittenhouse said. “It surpassed all of our expectations.”
FoxNews.com’s media desk contributed to this report.