The clip you’re about to see has aged as well as milk. If you’re just now getting here, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, 31, is dead. He was shot in Provo, Utah today while speaking at an event. Kirk was mega pro-guns. He considered them necessary, like cars, and he admonished people to be “realistic” that there were going to be gun deaths each year, and that that was a necessary price to pay for the Second Amendment. I wonder if it crossed his mind when he made this comment that Lady Karma would take him seriously and say, “Okay. If that’s how you feel, you can be one of the innocent victims.”
Charlie Kirk: “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”https://t.co/uoM6TqnAgJ pic.twitter.com/mbJSa2Lzmi
— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 6, 2023
Let’s make one thing clear from the start: Charlie Kirk was the victim of a shooting in a country where he, along with other right-wing extremist influencers, have been inciting violence for years. — Kirk is neither a martyr nor a hero, he is a cause.
— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) September 10, 2025
Trump jumped right on Truth Social to proclaim what a tragedy this is — and I concur, for once, with Trump, that this is a tragedy, indeed. But I would also like to point out that Trump didn’t behave at all the same way when Melissa Hortman and her husband were gunned down in their homes, and then the same shooter stalked and shot Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Even the Hortman’s golden retriever was shot and was buried with them. Neither Trump nor J.D. Vance attended the funerals or made any kind of comment about it — yet this murder, this assassination of a political figure is a cause celebre on the right side of the political spectrum.
We have too many guns on the streets. We have more guns than we have people in this country. What happened to Charlie Kirk is not okay. What happened to the Hortmans and the Hoffmans in Minnesota was not okay. Violence is not the route that we should go in any event.
What happened to Charlie Kirk is unconscionable, but it was literally a few months ago that two Democratic state legislators were gunned down by a right wing activist. Let’s not pretend this is one-sided pic.twitter.com/znJWkotYT0
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) September 10, 2025
We are now so polarized that we are shooting one another in the streets, in our homes, in our public assemblies. This cannot continue. The one point I wish to make, because of the lopsided coverage of the Hortman assassination, and the fact that the Trump administration utterly ignored it, is that the gate swings both ways. The Hortmans were also parents who left behind children. Kirk leaves behind a wife and two children. Politics is not the common denominator here, humanity is. The Hortmans and Kirk were all human beings. Their lives should not have been cut short by gun violence.
There are no good guys or bad guys, there are extremists in this country who choose to solve life’s problems with a bullet and that never, ever works. This is not about politics so much as it is about societal rot.
well they haven’t caught the assassinator yet. the guy in custody turns out not to be the gunman.
Could it b a female?
two students shot today as well at a Colorado high school.
Your accurately discharged words are a bullseye hit, being: “… Politics is not the common denominator … humanity is … so much as it is about societal rot…”
Not being conspiratorial but guarded – next steps forward will be telling as to what and how Trump gins-up this and turns it into circumstances of himself and his overall agenda.
“Live by the sword …”
Karma.
Two things. Auto deaths would be far worse if there weren’t laws and regulations. Including who is allowed to drive.
As for guns and freedom I am so sick and fucking tired of the myth that we are free because we have the second amendment and this country is awash in guns, including and especially those that were specifically designed NOT for hunting game but to kill other humans in combat. There are lots of other countries that are free. As free if not more so than we are because THEIR citizens don’t live with the daily fear they could be gunned down while out and about. Or that their loved ones will head to work and get gunned down there. Or their CHILDREN get gunned down in school. Even church isn’t safe anymore and that includes Christian churches!
I think of that epic clip from The Newsroom where Jeff Daniel’s character rips up the college student who says what makes America the greatest country on earth is that we have freedom. The other panelists echo her and he demurs until pressed by the host – and let’s loose naming important countries that have freedom. Every bit as much as we do.
What they DON’T have is mass shootings. And gun control is a huge part of that. Many of these countries allow people to own guns but they are much more regulated in who can own them and what type. THAT is the difference.
Yes, agree, other countries, to their foresight and credit, do have a much more strict, robust and regulated system of gun control, compared to America, and it shows. The sad and unfortunate death of this individual shows the flip-side of mucking with the second amendment.The whole and horrifying irony of this tragedy is echoed by the deceased mans words, or to that effect, being: ‘… Gun deaths are unfortunately worth it to keep the second amendment …’ A case of careful what one wishes for, perhaps. His death exposes the deadly risk materializing from the wish to promote and secure the existence of such hazards. He didn’t lose his life for a cause, he lost his life because he played with deadly fire, and sadly he got burnt by actions taken by another person.
George Wallace and now Kirk paid the price for spreading hate and promoting violence. No one should be murdered. That said, he and his cronies have celebrated violence and embraced fascism. Upton Sinclair said fascism was just capitalism supported by murder. 400 million guns on the streets put there by Kirk and friends. That’s a serious gamble to take on every adult in America, and he lost. In a Trump state, at a conservative college, he discovered none of us are safe in this country. No one. Of course, the people who voted against the gop already knew that. Now the nazi/Maga crowd know the crosshairs can land on anyone.
Trump, who was hit by a bit of shrapnel was speaking in a quite conservative part of Pennsylvania. Despite having a Secret Service detail and a robust state & local LE at the event. Like you and many others I have questions about whether Trump was an actual target of that young man or just a huge celebrity that would make his ‘suicide by cop’ memorable. Or maybe he got a ‘hunting a human’ version of “Deer Fever.” I’m pretty sure you know what that is but for those who don’t it’s a common thing with deer hunters. They get all excited when they have a real chance to bag a deer. Adrenaline kicks in, and without them realizing it their heart starts pounding, their breath becomes deep and ragged and other physical reactions. All of that causes them to often miss, or at least not make a kill shot and only wound the deer. NONE of them will admit to it. Telling a guy who talks about the deer that ‘got spooked’ and suddenly moved as they were ‘squeezing’ the trigger that he had deer fever has prompted countless fist fights. I’ve seen it happen. Many would rather admit they’ve got a tiny dick and can’t satisfy their wives/girlfriends than admit to deer fever.
And of course there’s the possibility the Butler shooter was manipulated to do what he did. Promises of fame and a sentence to a psychiatric ward with an eventual pardon or commutation to do what he did to burnish Trump’s image. That rule of political assassinations I’ve mentioned comes to mind – any assassin who is acting on orders/contract thinking they will live is a fool. That dude was dead the moment he crawled out on that rooftop. But my point is that this all went down in hardcore Trump territory. As you say, none of us are safe anymore. It doesn’t matter whether you’re conservative or liberal. There’s just way too many guns out there in the hands of way too many people who have no business having one, or access to one.