Shark Coast Tactical in Sarasota has hired Kyle Rittenhouse, bringing the nationally known figure onto its staff after he recently moved to the city with his wife. The gun shop introduced him on its podcast on Aug. 25 as its newest employee, and Rittenhouse said he had already been working there for more than a month.
Rittenhouse said he and Bella Rittenhouse moved to Sarasota after he accepted the job at the shop at 2819 Bee Ridge Road. He said he liked the team's morale and that he loved working in Sarasota. "This is my life now, and I love my life," he said. "I sell guns for a living. It's fun."
The hiring lands in a place where Rittenhouse's name still carries weight. In August 2020, when he was 17, he shot and killed two men and wounded another with an AR-15-style rifle at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. He joined a group of armed men who said they were protecting businesses, said he acted in self-defense and told the court that several demonstrators attacked him. A jury found him not guilty of all charges in November 2021.
Shark Coast Tactical did not lay out why it chose Rittenhouse, but owner Will Meade called him "illustrious" and said he was a valuable addition to the team. Rittenhouse's own comments made clear that he sees the job as part of a public identity he has already spent years defending. Asked whether the controversy changes how people treat him at work, he said, "I carry a gun and I shoot straight."
That leaves the central question hanging over the hire: whether Shark Coast Tactical wanted a salesman, a celebrity, or both. Rittenhouse has already moved, already started, and already framed the job as permanent enough to define his daily life. What the shop has not explained is why it wanted him in the first place, beyond the fact that he was available and willing to work.
