rightwing

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!”

[From People]

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.