There’s a whole movement of Gen Z and Millennial hard-right conservative guys who all sort of blend together for me. Before this week, I would not have been able to pick Charlie Kirk out of a line-up. But now the image of Kirk getting shot in the neck at a Utah college campus is seared into my memory bank. Kirk, who was only 31 years old, was shot and killed at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. He was on some kind of platform or stage, doing a “Prove Me Wrong” Q&A session. The last question he was asked was “do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years?” Kirk answered with a question, “counting or not counting gang violence?” Then he was shot in the neck.
Charlie Kirk has died at age 31 after being shot during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10, according to President Donald Trump.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” the president shared on Truth Social on Wednesday afternoon. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”
Kirk, a right-wing media personality who founded conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, was manning his signature “Prove Me Wrong” table on the first stop of his American Comeback Tour in Orem, Utah, when shots were fired. Video posted from the event appeared to show Kirk being struck in the side of the head or neck as he spoke to the crowd from under a white pop-up tent.
After the shot rang out, the crowd dispersed in a panic, with onlookers shouting, “Run, run, run!”
There are multiple angles of the shooting from people in the crowd, and each angle is worse than the next. I don’t recommend watching any of the videos, but they’re all over social media. As many have pointed out, Kirk spent the past nine or ten years demonizing minorities, women and marginalized communities and he ended up getting killed by someone who I’m 99.999% sure is a white-male shooter. In the whitest state in America, on a campus which is overwhelmingly white.
In 2023, Kirk was asked about the second amendment, mass shootings and America’s gun problem. He said: “You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It’s drivel. But I am, I, I — I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal.”
I’m including an assortment of reactions from Democratic leaders. Republican leaders did not bother to offer any kind of similar sentiments when Minnesota’s Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman was assassinated in her home alongside her husband and their dog. That happened less than three months ago.
There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 10, 2025
We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 10, 2025
I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family.
Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 10, 2025
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- -Charlotte, North Carolina – 20200824 Supporters of the Republican Party speak during the Republican National Convention on day one. -PICTURED: Charlie Kirk -PHOTO by: CNP/startraksphoto.com -082420_RNCC-Day01_003 This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at sales@startraksphoto.com or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Charlie Kirk Where: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States When: 24 Aug 2020 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum Featuring: Charlie Kirk, CEO of TPUSA Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States When: 15 Jul 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
Wow, the old adage comes to life: live by …
It’s also FAFO.
I guess he is now a cost of gun deaths that will keep the second amendment rights.
I feel sad for his wife and two children. However, he injected much venom into the veins of society.
At first I felt bad for his kids, but when I remembered he said if his daughter was r@ped at 10 and got pregnant he’d force her to carry it to term.
That comment from Kirk is no reason to stop feeling bad for his kids. Whatever that girl’s father said, in no way means she deserved this – nor did she deserve what her father claimed he was okay with happening (for the love of christ). The kids are always blameless. None of us are at fault for the parents we were born to. Poor children; both Kirk’s and every single one that has been impacted and killed by gun violence. They have my complete empathy and sadness, always.
@val
I don’t think Mc is blaming the girl or saying she deserves this, I think she’s saying the girl may be better off without a father than with a father like him.
I’m sure he did not think that he would be the sacrifice that needs to be made so that men can run around with automatic weapons to feel more masculine and “free” – it’s usually our children who are sacrificed. And don’t think guns are doing anything to protect our “God-given rights” – if anything the miltary and their guns are being used to take away our rights. But ideas like his will remain.
Rights aren’t god given at all. Guns or other rights. They are man made
His death will be used to justify more military and police crackdown. Or the reichstag fire was just lit and he was the sacrifice.
Are they going to send the National Guard to Utah? Serious question. I am not sure how they are going to handle this happening in a bright red, overwhelmingly white state.
Can we just jump in with the conspiracy theories right now? This was 100% orchestrated by Trump whose base was turning on him. Going vigilante dictator now will appeal to Kirk’s minions.
THIS is what kept me up last night. Pretty convenient timing, right? Suddenly we’re not talking about Epstein; the far right can enjoy a new narrative about the violent left, and Trump has another excuse to justify his authoritarian bent.
I don’t think Trump himself orchestrated it (being dumb, old, and sick), but I could entertain the possibility of his puppeteers seeing the value in another staged shooting.
A distraction from Epstein, perhaps? Whomever shot him was a crack shot.
But, isn’t government tyranny the main excuse for the citizens to have guns in the first place? Trump is aiming for absolute power right now.
A
@Mightymolly. I totally agree . He is fomenting violence that he will use as an excuse for military policing and for bonus points. Blame everyone who is not a MAGA. He did this in there first election period. All kinds of violent incidences in other countries blamed on migrants. Othering people. And he totally faxed the ear-asassination attempt.
Actually, they are probably ex-military or a hunter but a “crack shot” is not the case, IMO.
I’m considered an expert marksman from my time in the military, and that shot was a fluke. We were always taught to aim for center mass and that was definitely not center mass. I think the shooter was aiming for the head and on the exhale and while pulling the trigger the gun dipped down and that’s why he was hit in his neck.
However, if it was a shot from 500/600 feet as speculated, the shooter had some sort of training.
I was only vaguely aware of him. Like you said, in my mind, he was just one of many “red pill” podcasters. Now they are trying to turn him into a martyr.
I have not watched any of the videos.
THIS is the moment for Democratic leadership to hold the line—not to join the chorus of praise for Kirk or excuse his actions. He was a megaphone for hate speech, misogyny, and racism, and that reality doesn’t change because of how he died. You cannot claim to champion free speech and open exchange while simultaneously working to disenfranchise women and minorities.
Well, Gavin Newson and Josh Shapiro have failed, so far.
Gavin’s social media manager was the real genius behind him. We all knew he was a tool anyway.
Kirk organized buses to Washington DC for the January 6 coup attempt.
He encouraged people to threaten and attack school board members in their homes and businesses.
“Trying to turn him into a martyr.” I thought of this exact same thing yesterday. I would bet money that his cronies will turn him into a martyr, then down the road, trot out his wife and kids as the faces of their agenda. There was also another school shooting yesterday but it didn’t get the same airplay. All of this is so sad.
Ugh. This was a horrific act. But we are here because of the MAGA movement and Charlie Kirk stoked the flames of hate and violence throughout his career. It is a tragedy that he died so young and especially for his children who will now grow up without a father. President Trump is already making the situation worse. It really feels like we are ina death spiral. And it is the fault of all those in the MAGA movement.
Observation: More and more Americans are coming to believe that political violence may be the only recourse in a system designed to insulate itself from true democratic accountability. When traditional vehicles for change—voting, protests, strikes—are rendered toothless by gerrymandering, PACs, Citizens United, and the outsized influence of the mega-wealthy, people inevitably start looking for alternatives.
To be clear: I am not condoning or excusing acts of violence. I am observing that when legitimate avenues for reform are systematically blocked, desperate people will search for other paths.
A single shot to the carotid artery from 200 yards away? Very few people could make that shot. This was a trained sniper (who may have had help making a clean getaway). Sounds like a professional hit. And apparently, there was no ambulance for Kirk, just a black SUV. I’m not ordinarily a conspiracy theorist but this thing reeks of false flag.
Yes. They’ll conveniently find the one brown person in all of Utah with sniper training who moved there from a blue state (because they can’t make him military), to make him the fall guy.
definitely a false flag
Last night, the commentators kept using “200 yards” and “200 feet” interchangeably, and those are two very different distances. Patel fired all the seasoned FBI investigators so I don’t think they have any idea where the shot originated.
Per the article about the manhunt, they believe the shot came from a person on a roof 142 yards away.
That’s what I was thinking, but as FancyPants said, they kept mixing up 200 yards and 200 feet. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t know how to handle a gun so I certainly couldn’t aim for and hit a man’s neck (what they were calling a “kill shot”) from even 20 feet away. But there is a lot of confusion. That said, it does seem like whoever did this had some training?
Two hundred yards is 600 feet (two football fields, basically) so if I had to guess I’d say they meant it was from 200 feet away. Not saying it’s impossible for a very good sniper to shoot another person from 600, but it’s highly unlikely IMHO.
The scope on the gun makes the target appear closer. Everything I have seen gives 200 yards (600feet) as the approximate distance. And the precision more than the distance is what makes it difficult.
it’s yards — depending on the caliber of rifle, that is well within the range.
Though I agree it was someone with some skill, especially since he was under a tent which would have limited the potential angle.
I get post-Orange fake assassination attempt anything is thought possible, but let’s not dive into conspiracy theories. It was a clear shot. Anyone with enough hunting experience could make that shot.
Conspiracy theory or Occam’s Razor? Who benefits most from this? Trump.
I see your point, but I think it’s fair to observe that we no longer trust anything coming from this administration or this system. They rattle off lies daily and have shown, time and again, their willingness to break the law to tighten their grip on power. In that context, observations are not only fair—they’re necessary. And I hope the media frames them that way: not as accusations or conspiracies, but as clear-eyed reflections on the state of our political system and its effects.
I concur this was a straight up hit. All the reporting I’ve read is that it’s 200 yards. Which BTW is standard military training in the Marines as a STARTING distance (not sure about other services). I don’t think we will find the perpetrator.
This was a professional hit. Regular hunters don’t target as precisely from. 200 yards away and looks to have been spotted on a roof.
I saw one video and it was one shot on target. Only trained military with sniper skills does this. (Or hitman)
Most importantly the person has not been found yet, and that’s the main sign this was a professional. Buddy who hunts deer wouldn’t be able to leave barely undetected.
So the question is who paid for this professional? Kirk isn’t important in the scheme of things but they know his death will be used by the right to make things worse. So this is either a foreign entity looking to cause more chaos or someone looking to distract from the Epstein stuff. I lean toward a forward entity because it was precise and clean. It is not the messy situation in Pennsylvania last year.
Oh, now the FBI is saying they have images of the shooter but won’t release them. Why would you not release his image if he’s a highly wanted suspect? They want him going around in public unrecognized and the public can’t call in a tip? That never happens. This is very sus.
Two things are true about the Trump admin: They love to try and cover things up and they are very bad at it.
they fired an MSNBC commentator for calling him hateful. which he was. absolute bullshit.
MSNBC is garbage like the rest.
I’ve been biting my tongue a lot because I don’t want to be attacked by moronic MAGA’s but yeah, he wasn’t a respectful guy, he wasn’t a nice guy. He was divisive and hateful just like Trump. You reap what you sow.
I dont feel sad for his children. He said that if his 9 or 10 yr old daughter got raped & got pregnant he’d make her keep the baby.
I dont think people should be murdered but I’m not shedding a tear.
100%.
I can’t imagine living in a house with him. Yeah, he died in a horrible way, but that doesn’t change that he was a horrible person. He rolled out the red carpet for mass shootings and here we are.
I do feel sad for his children. Like most children who are born to awful parents, they did not ask to be. His legacy and violent death will follow them the rest of their lives. I hope they get good therapy.
I don’t feel sorry for this man and I honestly hope they don’t find the person who did it, but isn’t this (his statements about his daughter) another reason to feel bad for the kids? I don’t understand the commenters who are saying they don’t feel bad for the kids because Kirk said stuff like this. It must be awful to grow up around adults who say such things.
I think their thinking is the kids are better off without a virulent misogynist and racist raising them.
In all likelihood though, mom shares those beliefs and will probably just find another man exactly like him to marry.
I definitely feel sorry for the kids. No innocent child deserves to be raised by such hateful people or to lose a parent in such a traumatic way.
Kirk has said very despicable things and has been inciting the hate for years. I agree that people need to stop with the hagiography. And frankly his wife chose to have kids with a man who is pretty hateful. But the kids did not choose their parents. They are the only innocent ones here. Perhaps later on they will be able to advocate for sane gun laws.
I very much hope they find the shooter — because ‘they’ have already been painted as a violent leftist and in the absence of an actual suspect — that narrative is going to stand. The right wing pundits are already going all in on ‘we are at war’ and some even wanting to declare the Democratic party as a terrorist organization.
Sigh.
Look, violence isn’t the answer. I don’t want anyone to be gunned down for speaking their opinion (as abhorrent as I find that opinion) in public.
But its also been one side that has consistently been responsible for these shootings in recent months. It wasn’t a member of the radical left (eyeroll) who gunned down the Hortmans. The alleged attempted assassin in PA was a conservative voter. And I have my thoughts about who was behind this shooting.
And just because someone has been killed doesn’t make them a saint. The way the media and the right wing politicians have treated this shooting (not an assassination, a shooting/murder) is ludicrous. Flags at half staff? A moment of silence at yankee stadium?!!? (I’m hoping the latter was for 9/11 because if not….)
This just feels too convenient for me in terms of timing, which is awful to say.
Yeah, right after that letter got published.
the cynic in me is right there with you.
The timing was no coincidence. Political violence is wrong but the response to this from the right has been to threaten more of it.
Sane gun laws are what need to happen here.
That is the only way to contain this.
The timing is all too convenient. I agree!
Charlie Kirk believed that black people were genetically violent, and that any black woman in a position of power was only in her role due to DEI. As in he believed it was impossible for a black woman to be qualified for a job of importance. The ONLY sympathy I hold is for his three year old who was by reports there and will in some corner of their mind remember father being murdered in front of them. You can’t control who your parents are. Otherwise F him.
I have no problem with Democratic leadership saying that violence like this is not a good thing. They all said the same thing when Melissa Hortman was murdered. And they are correct, we don’t want to go back to the late 60s. They aren’t pretending that he was a good guy and how it’s so sad about him specifically, which is what I’ve seen from some people and caused some eye rolls.
Yes, that’s a good point. the Dem leadership is consistent in their responses to these kinds of attacks, to violence in schools, political violence, etc.
Its the republicans who switch up their response based on who is the target.
Going to be dark here but I think the states are well beyond the 1960s. Yes there were political assassinations then but there wasn’t the school shootings, one of which literally happened right after this incident.
And the part that makes it worse is one side of the political spectrum and the president are fanning the flames of even more violence.
LBJ wasn’t making things worse after RFK or MLK were killed.
And there wasn’t a mainstream news network pushing out false information and hate on top of that.
He had also been asked right before that last question about how many trans people had committed mass shootings because he was pushing the idea that trans people are all crazy because 1 out of how many number of mass shootings was done by a trans person. His response was “too many” -literally one, and then side stepping the follow up question meant to point out the predominance of white cis men’s involvement in mass shootings.
I don’t condone the murder of anyone by gun or anything else, but I can’t muster up much sympathy for this guy right now. What upsets me more is how he is now a martyr and they will use this to hook more people by playing up the victim cards.
Yes, the martyrdom of Kirk is infuriating. He was basically a professional troll who helped elevate the worst person imaginable to the presidency. I was increasingly appalled last night at the people in my FB feed, old classmates and co-workers, who posted to mourn about his death, about how this was a “dark day.” I wanted to scream…our country is imploding and we have been living in hell thanks to Trump and THIS is the event you feel worthy of a mention? The brainwashing of the right is something to behold.
Yes, this. These same people never post about “dark days” after school shootings, or after the killing of the Democratic congresswoman in Minnesota. Why is this any different.
Same, orange and Kitten (sorry my phone eats the comments if I scroll up while commenting so I’m getting your names wrong). Folks who I’m still friends with who at least keep their politics under wraps were posting about this. And I’m like, you said nothing when two children were murdered while praying, you said nothing when the Minnesota lawmakers were shot in their homes in the middle of the night. This guy was garbage, being a husband and father doesn’t change that. I felt sorry for his wife and kids before, and I feel sorry for them now, I wish them peace and healing. But he either experienced consequences for maybe the first time, or was a victim of people he cheer leads.
Oh well.
I’ve also found it difficult to muster up much sympathy…maybe, at best, for his children. This is one where “you reap what you sow” seems oh so fitting.
Unfortunately this is now going to further his 15 minutes because they have a martyr to their movement.
What has angered me is all the posts from my “Christian” conservative acquaintances quoting scripture, Kirk quotes, etc. who didn’t post a darn thing about the Minnesota murders, at best a single “thoughts and prayers” in stories about the last several mass murders (and nothing about the ones in the last 2 weeks). True Christians don’t only mourn mediocre hateful young white guys.
None of those accounts have even acknowledged that there was a school shooting at the same time.
Thoughts and prayers
I didn’t know he was that famous (or famous enough to get shot specifically like that – yikes.)
I no longer know what’s going on…
I don’t know whether I’m torn by this. Kirk and Magats are the ones who stoke this heated environment we live in. They have sown such hateful rhetoric and falsehoods I don’t know whether it’s justified or sad these kinda of people die like this, by the knife they weild.
I am sad for his innocent children who will relieve this when they’re older as the Internet never dies.
I am sad for the no doubt innocent members of society this act will reap when there’s retaliation from the magats.
I am sad that these vile attacks keeps broadening and deepning the divide between good and peaceful Americans and the rest of the vile animals amongst us.
I don’t know guys, but I don’t want to loose the humanity in me by not being affected by the violent end of a nasty man but also…
There was a shooting in Colorado yesterday. I saw footage from a ring cam with children running for their lives — one child said “I know these people! They’ll let us in!”
Kirk was full of hatred and darkness and made it his life’s work to spread that hatred everywhere using the Bible as his standard. He made the world worse and now he’s dead.
And yet very little is being reported on this, another school shooting.
There was virtually NOTHING about the Colorado shooting.
My heart breaks for these children (and the many, many others terrorized and killed while in school).
My heart broke for Melissa Hortman, her husband and their pup.
That’s all I got.
At first I thought they mistakenly used the pic of the Virginia Attorney General.
I straight up hated this man, and I’m not that surprised he met his end this way, but I feel for his wife and kids. I can only hope that this discourages people like him from feeling the need to be out there provoking others for clickbait videos and similar bullshirt. As others have said FAFO; if you keep pushing, someone will snap.
Ppl are mad at me on Twt bc i said the world is a better place without Charlie Kirk in it. Oh well! He was the one who said empathy was bad.
I don’t feel bad for his wife. She chose him. I do feel bad for his kids. Not bc he’s dead, they are better off without a father who would force his child daughter to carry a baby if she was raped and doesn’t think she should have an education. I feel bad bc from what I’ve read, his kids were there and witnessed the whole thing. Nobody, especially very young children, should be forced to witness such violence.
Steph, I agree with the care and sympathy his children deserve. AND he had made statements that children should be required to watch executions. !!!
I am very sorry to say that I accidentally (and involuntarily) watched his. I feel traumatized and I wasn’t even there. All those students who were present are now traumatized. And all the kids in all the schools that have witnessed shootings. How did we get here.
A horrible ending for a horrible man. Kids getting shot barely gets a blink and this man told us all a few murders are worth it for the streets to be paved with guns. I hate and never condone murder, but he advocated for this to be our way of life and so far the NRA is winning in spades.
To paraphrase the late Bette Davis: You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Charlie Kirk is dead. Good.
For those who don’t know, she was talking about Joan Crawford.
Thoughts and prayers.
My son texted me yesterday that he’d been shot and was probably dead and I couldn’t remember who he was until I looked up some of the things he said. “Oh, THAT guy.” No, my son is not a follower of his, thank Pete. I think someone in his office saw the breaking news and told him.
Whoever did this was prepared, it seems. They aimed to kill, hitting him in the neck, and it worked. They also got away. Do they still not have anyone in custody? My first thought was maybe someone in with military training, but who knows. It could just be that they bought a gun or five, practiced on their own, and planned very well.
I won’t shed a tear for him because he was awful and as they say, live by the sword. He was the one who said “guns save lives” and that some shooting deaths was the price we had to pay so people like him could own deadly toys. But political violence is terrifying and tears at the fabric of society. No one should be shot while or for giving a speech, no matter how much I disagree with it.
Lemme just tell you, I work with veterans daily. My co worker (ex Marine) straight up said this was a hit by a trained military professional. He know the make of the gun and caliber of bullet. When it was revealed that he was shot from 2 football fields away, he was like “Yah, that where you start in training, then 3, then 5.” This was a straight up hit IMO. My prayer is not the impetus for something bigger.
I also wondered why the set up for this appearance was a fully outdoor amphitheater-type setting with school buildings surrounding the area w/ a lone Kirk on stage seated in a chair. Were the cops and security folks not stationed on the rooftops? Didn’t secure the floors/windows that faced the stage area? They did not. I despised this guy, everything he said and stood for. He was awful. But the “sitting duck” situation is disturbing.
Ms. Smith, he’s not a politician and he pays for all his own security. And his schtick was traveling around the country doing “debate me” events on college campuses. He’s done this for years, and it’s basically wherever the campus lets him set up. He wasn’t set up, any more than anyone holding an event on a college campus quad is. He should’ve been safe, but so should my elementary kids. So should the Minnesota kids in the Catholic Church.
The video of this shooting was nothing compared to what’s been streaming live from Gaza for the past 23 months. Other than that, this guy kind of blended together with all of the other mean little demagogues goading our country down a dark path. I don’t think his death will change that trajectory, nor will he be long remembered outside of his family, because there are too many others just like him ready to take his place and subsume it. Nor will it make an ounce of difference to the problem of gun control, which will not be solved until an asteroid strikes our planet and puts us all out of our misery.
I will never not be horrified by violent acts like this. I will never – no matter who is the target – condone violence as the answer. Anyone who thinks that this is okay or that someone deserves to be killed do NOT align with my liberal views. I don’t claim you.
I don’t see anyone, especially on this site, saying this man DESERVED to be shot and killed. What people are saying is that they aren’t feeling sad or mourning his death for many different reasons. Just like this man didn’t mourn or express sadness for the many other lives that have been taken by gun violence and political radicals.
You can admit that you don’t feel any sadness about this while at the same time understand and acknowledge that the act was horrific.
🎯
Here are my thoughts and prayers. My condolences to the family, especially the children. I don’t care for gun violence or violent rhetoric from either side, BUT if the media is going glorify Kirk and his influence, let me do the same for the OTHER side. All my thoughts, prayers, sympathies, empathy and ALL advocacy goes to the diverse and marginalized communities that have been attacked; the people of Gaza; victims of school shootings; victims of rape; Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark; Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette; and Paul Pelosi. While Kirk is being martyred, these “others” have been mocked, disrespected, diminished, forgotten.
I would also like to include thoughts and prayers to Matthew Dowd for being fired from MSNBC for speaking the truth. I hope he lands another job soon — and to keep speaking the truth.
Good for you, I couldn’t agree more!
Totally agree.
Oh no, the consequences of his own actions. A career built on whipping up hatred and homophobia, transphobia, anti-Black racism, sexism, rape denial, and minimizing executions of school children. Also death by sniper-very convenient for justifying further crackdowns and martial law.
It’s unsurprising that a life focused on creating violence had a violent end.
Cold of me to say
Tater tots and pears
Except now they have a martyr for their cause.
I agree, tots and taters, came to mind.
No sympathy. You want to preach that gun deaths are needed each year to protect your 2nd amendment rights, well live by the sword die by the sword. Or maybe the curse put on him by those Etsy witches truly was effective, who knows.
I desperately hope the shooter turns out to be some right-wing nut job, so we can all go back to our previous programming. Because you know Trump is going to try to use this to his advantage… like a Reichstag fire, against the whole country. The problem is: do we trust our current FBI to solve the case, especially, if the identity of the shooter turns out to be inconvenient for them?
This is a professional who will never be caught and likely out of the country already. And that works for the right because they can pretend it was a left wing person without ever being told otherwise.
@nic919, agree. Trained, former military sharp shooter. Hitting a target at this distance is part of training.
@Nic19, Doesn’t have to be a “professional”. Could be any number of paramilitary men, either ex-military, or not, who learn to shoot, because “guv’mint”. The nation is positively lousy with them. Our best bet is that the shooter is one of these guys, with a Kirk-sized axe to grind. Our next-best bet is that he’s never found. And that next-best scenario is really, really bad.
I never thought for one second he was just going to Universities to just debate. He was building a future voting block for Presidency one day.
Obviously violence is not the answer. But the shooter may have altered our history forever. If. If that was Charlie’s ultimate goal. That’s my tin hat theory.
An evil and dangerous man once said, if you control the youth, you control the future.
Funny, I never saw this kind of response from the right when Melissa and Mark Hortman were assassinated by a right winger.
But ultimately, Charlie died for what he believed in gun rights.
He probably did have his sights on the Presidency. God help us, if there was to be a significant constituency for his bilge, by the time he got around to running.
The news are trying to encoirage everyone to bring down the temperature bit the reciepts on Kirk are out there and it’s going to be hard, especiallu when grace was not shown when the Dem from MN was assassinated. The feds have found the gun, a long range rifle. The shooter is still on the loose.
Nobody deserves to die. And the truly hateful especially don’t deserve to die and become martyrs.
But I remember seeing truckbed decals with a trussed up Kamala Harris and/or Joe Biden during the 2024 election. Like, sold on Etsy. And it pisses me off to see all of the a-holes who supported such merchandise suddenly all about condemning violence and tone policing folks who were simply reminding others that Charlie Kirk said horrible things.
Trump and his minions are already using this as an excuse to try and use violence on the left and squash dissent. This might be our Reichstag Fire, guys. Think about it: Trump’s dumb military occupation of blue cities isn’t working. The Epstein files are not going away. Putin humiliated him in person. His own party is turning on the war on our health that his buddy RFK is waging. We were warned and warned again by people who were closest to him in his first term to not let him into the WH again because he is this dangerous.
And Charlie got shot in his carotid at a long range. That wasn’t some random disgruntled white kid. And they can’t find the shooter. I don’t think they are going to find any shooter.
I live in the UK and apple news had this as breaking news. I cannot find any sympathy for this guy at all. If this happened to someone else, I doubt this person would care so 🤷🏻♀️
Charlie Kirk used his platform to spread hate-filled MAGA rhetoric that was dangerous to women, marginalized communities like African Americans & immigrants, and particularly the trans community. He thought that a 10-year-old rape victim should be forced to carry her rapist’s baby to term and thought that gun deaths were unfortunately “worth it” in protecting the 2nd Amendment. Kirk spread conspiracy theories about COVID and the vaccine; he was a hateful troll who was responsible for so much divisive and dangerous political speech. That said, I do have empathy for his two young children and wife, even though Kirk famously said: “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up new age term that does a lot of damage.” Political violence should never be a solution.
I am usually not one to indulge in conspiracy theories…BUT. Just two days ago, Kirk appeared with Megyn Kelly and spoke about how the DOJ needs to release the Epstein files. Two days later, Kirk is killed in what looks like a professional assassination hit. Trump wastes no time, and before a suspect has been arrested or a motive is known, he vows vengeance on the radical left-wing for this, and casts Kirk as some martyr. Sorry, there is too much about this that is suspicious to me. Similar to the incident involving that young kid in Butler, PA, who shot at Trump. We NEVER hear anything about that!
Trump will seemingly do anything to distract from the Epstein files. Our country is so screwed. Ugh…
Kirk had enemies on the right People would build credentials by saying he had gone soft and wasn’t right wing enough.
We are heading into a very dangerous moment in our history and the media not being honest about who Charlie Kirk was and what he stood for is making things worse.
Blakely Thornton had a powerful IG post yesterday that really hit me:
“I will not celebrate, but I certainly will not mourn.
To the whites policing how we react,
quite frankly you need to fall back.
Because when we sit in a state of fear and despair,
all we get are thoughts and prayers.
And that’s all you’ll be getting here, or there.
You might think you’re being taunted,
but this man died in the world he wanted.”
Who cares? Next!
The news are trying to encourage everyone to bring down the temperature bit the reciepts on Kirk are out there and it’s going to be hard, especiallu when grace was not shown when the Dem from MN was assassinated. The feds have found the gun, a long range rifle. The shooter is still on the loose.
The right – including the dead guy! – is practically gleeful with spite when children are mowed down by guns, rubbing it our collective faces that they have all the power and that it doesn’t matter to them who the collateral damage is. They can barely contain themselves with glee when Black people shoot other Black people as they take it as a confirmation of all of their biases. They *were* openly gleeful when Democratic lawmakers and their families are killed or wounded.
And so if there are any lurking Republicans here: this is the world you want and the world you celebrate. I’m certainly not going to have any empathy here, for the dead Charlie Kirk himself once said that he didn’t believe in empathy, it is too woke, it is a made up leftist idea.
I mourn gun violence. But then I’ve never been one to bay for more blood, more violence, more unrest like the GOP does.
Let’s not forget that yesterday the GOP voted to protect Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican pedophiles in Congress and they indicated that there are many, that their party would be destroyed if the Epstein files came out. This guy’s death is awfully convenient for the Pedophile Party.
I would not be surprised if that orange fool was somehow behind this as another distraction from the Epstein files. If he really loved Charlie Kirk as much as he claims, he would be angry that he was shot. But instead he’s too conciliatory. He’s too ready to focus everyone’s energy on putting Kirk on a pedestal and making a martyr of him. But there’s no outrage or anger for a life cut short at such a young age. Hmm…
Teenage attendees to Kirk’s TPUSA conventions had to have waivers, signed by their parents, releasing Kirk from liability for rape. These teens would then attend receptions where the likes of Matt Gaetz got to mingle with them.
Kirk and Virginia Thomas organized buses to Washington for the January 6 coup and his postings on social media talked about making it the most historic day ever. Those posts were all deleted when the coup failed.
Kirk is banned from a local university because of actions he directed against one of the professors, including forging her signature on permit applications for a campus event.
It’s deeply unsettling to be watching the violence in America on a daily basis. This should not have happened; however, have the day you voted for.