Kyle Rittenhouse was hospitalized after being bitten by a brown recluse spider, according to posts he shared on social media. He posted pictures of himself in a hospital bed strapped to monitors, along with a close-up shot of the bite mark.

"The spider, like the commies, also thought it was a good idea to come after me while I was armed. He did not survive." Rittenhouse wrote in one post. In another message, he wrote, "The communists couldn't take me out and I'll be damned if I let a brown recluse take me out."

The posts drew thousands of responses, including support and mockery. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told Rittenhouse, "You got this." Rittenhouse replied on X, "Thank you, Senator." He did not appear to respond to online body-shaming ridicule.

Rittenhouse is now chief firearms instructor and director of partnerships for Texas Gun Rights, which describes itself as the "largest no-compromise gun rights organization in" the Lone Star state.

In late summer 2020, Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The unrest followed protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. Rittenhouse, then a 17-year-old resident of Antioch, Illinois, went to Kenosha armed with an AR-15-style rifle and first aid supplies, saying he was there to protect property and render medical care.

He killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded paramedic Gaige Grosskreutz during the melee. He testified in his own defense at his trial and was acquitted on all five charges connected to the shooting.