Charlie Kirk assassinated at Utah university, aged 31

[thewayne]

Kirk, a conservative activist, was the founder of Turning Point USA and a regular speaker at colleges and universities. He would challenge people to debates and was good at turning said debates to conservative talking points.

The shooting happened not long after his talk began, his security rushed him to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The campus, Utah Valley University in Orem, went into lock-down and shelter in place. While one arrest was made on-site, that person was later released. The assassin is still at large at this time.

POTUS has ordered flags at the White House to half-mast and Mike Johnson a moment of silence in the House of Reps.

It is reported that the shooter was on the roof of a near-by building, about 200' away.

Tots and pears. It's hard for me to say that our political process should not devolve into violence when the party in power incites violence daily.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/live/charlie-kirk-shooting-live-updates-conservative-activist-shot-at-utah-valley-university-event-school-says-190606372.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/live-updates-shooting-charlie-kirk-event-utah-rcna230437

[Edit: the shooter was on top of the building 200 YARDS, not feet, away. I should have caught that. I believe the measured distance was 183 yards. The weapon was a bolt-action high-powered rifle, basically a hunting rifle. It was recovered a few hours after the murder, with the fired round still in the chamber.]

Comments

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's sad that society has chosen to solve its problems with violence. But when lots of people praise violence, and suppress peaceful methods, this is exactly where those choices lead and society does not get to complain because it dislikes the results of its poor life choices.

You want to avoid this? Make sure that peaceful methods work. Encourage protests and unions. Solve the problems that people highlight at such events.

[disneydream06]

Children are killed daily in this country by guns, and they never have a moment of silence in Congress for them. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know two wrongs don't make a right, but.....
Just what they need, a martyr. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Yep.  It's tragic when one of theirs dies, an unavoidable cost of FREEDUM when anyone else is killed.

[moonhare]

Meanwhile, in Colorado…

https://www.cpr.org/2025/09/10/evergreen-high-school-shooting/

[thewayne]

Yeah, I read about it.  And I'm sure Mike Johnson's comments were entirely predictable.

[disneydream06]

Sounds like we need the National Guard in the Red state of Utah. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, he didn't lower the flags when the Minnesota Democrats were getting assassinated. :o

[richardf8]

I wanted to fly a flag at full height in observance of Charlie Kirk's death, but my wife reminded me that we are still flying them at half mast for the Annunciation shooting victims.

[disneydream06]

I've had to contact the Mn. Dept of Transportation because our local office hasn't lowered their flag when the Governor has ordered it. Not sure if they lowered it for the school killings. :(

[richardf8]

It's MnDOT. They're not very situationally aware.

[disneydream06]

Definitely not our local branch. :o

We have an "adult" store on the edge of town that has a massive flag.
They don't always have it out and they don't always lower it, but when they do it's an impressive sight if the wind is blowing. :o

[motodraconis]

Here's some more from Free-Speech Land.

[thewayne]

Why any foreigner would want to come here, I cannot fathom.  Meanwhile, they apparently caught the shooter.  A 22 y/o from a religious family, pappy was a preacher.  'Radicalized by the gaming community.'

[silveradept]

"Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind" is one of the lesser-known Biblical quotations, but it certainly seems to be one that is apt and applicable here. And, as has been quoted extensively elsewhere, this was a man who believed that gun deaths were an acceptable consequence of the freedom to kill the people he wanted to die with guns. He's being promoted as a martyr by the people who want to mass-slaughter others. In a sensible world, we would be bemoaning the ease of access to guns that allowed this to happen, but otherwise focusing our attention on others who are dying from gun violence because of people like him.

[frith]

You might want to fix that distance to 200 yards, not feet. It was 200m when I heard it on the news (in Canada) and I've since heard it was 200 yards, which is about the same in meters. 200 feet is really close.

[thewayne]

Ah, yes indeed.  I believe the actual distance was closer to 180 yards in the end.  Definitely my bad, and I certainly know the distance between feet, yards, and meters.

[frith]

No worries. ^_^ I wasn't sure at first, it was fresh news, so I waited several days for the 200 yard/meter measure to be repeated in reports.