Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois man notorious for being acquitted for killing two people and shooting another, is being mocked again on social media.
This time, users on X are poking fun at the gun-toting self-proclaimed vigilante following a rumor that he is banned for life from applying for Marines because of his low aptitude test results.
The allegations started circulating on April Fool’s Day after several people shared a screenshot of an email claiming to show that Rittenhouse was not only rejected by the U.S. Armed Forces but his Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test score was so low that he is permanently disqualified from applying again.
The ASVAB test measures a military candidate’s abilities to determine if they are fit for military training. It includes science, comprehension, math and other arithmetic and is also used for career placement in the military.
X users who love to hate Rittenhouse roasted him for days for being “too dumb” to make it in the military. The email, which is reportedly from a Kenosha Police Field Report, states that Rittenhouse took the test in January 2020, seven months before he traveled 20 miles to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and opened fire on three men who were protesting the police killing of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse claimed at the time that he was trying to protect local businesses.
An August 2020 Washington Post article published shortly after the shooting highlights Rittenhouse fondness for police including his history of posts promoting the “Blue Live Matters” slogan.
The Post also wrote about his failed attempt to join the Marine Corps that January, speaking to a service spokesperson who revealed that he was disqualified from serving but didn’t specific the reason.
According to the Marine Corps’ website, a score of at least 31 is required to enter that branch of the military. Those with nontraditional degrees or a GED must score at least a 50.
However, while dissecting the validity of the screenshot, snopes.com points out that the ASBVAB test could be taken multiple times and concluded that Rittenhouse was most likely not disqualified because of his score.
Snopes also calls attention to the verbiage in the email.
“His test score was far below the required minimum and was permanently disqualified from entering the USMC,” the email says, which could either be interpreted as cause and effect — he was disqualified because of the score or two separate statements— he was disqualified and he performed poorly on the test.
Snopes was able to track down the assumed source of the viral email.
One X user, David Hancock, who claimed to be a former associate of Rittenhouse said he received a copy of the email from Gaige Grosskreutz, the third man who Rittenhouse shot.
Grosskreutz now goes by another name to keep his identity concealed. He claims that the email is part of 938-page Kenosha police report on the 2020 shooting. However, Snopes is waiting on a copy of the report directly from authorities to cross check for authenticity.
Still Snopes’ investigators said: “We can say with relative confidence that Rittenhouse’s test scores were low, but they were not the reason he was permanently disqualified from enlisting in the Marines.”
