Charlie Kirk Shot Dead: The CEO and co-founder Turning Point USA (TPUSA) was shot and killed at Utah Valley University yesterday. His last debate was captured on video.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” a person in the crowd asked.
“Too many,” Kirk said.
Five, the person said. He then asked Kirk how many mass shooters there’d been in the last 10 years.
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk said.
“Great,” someone said, just before the crack of a gunshot. Kirk slumped right, blood spouting from his neck. His white shirt said “FREEDOM.”
Who Was Charlie Kirk? It’s not hard to understand a man who extensively documented his life and views. Kirk was 18 when he founded TPUSA, a profoundly influential far-right student organization that has more than 800 chapters across the country. Kirk had close ties to Trump and the Trump family. He was key to Trump’s 2024 ground game in battleground states. After the presidential election, Trump leaned on Kirk to vet candidates for the top jobs in his administration.
What Did He Stand For? Kirk believed Christians should run American society. He promoted the racist great replacement theory, promising Trump would “liberate” the country from immigrants, or as he put it, “the enemy occupation of the foreigner hordes.” He accused Democrats of purposely “diminishing and decreasing white demographics in America.” He said transgender people were “against the natural law,” that birth control “screws up female brains,” and that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake. At a rally just before the January 6th insurrection, Kirk bragged about sending “80-plus buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president.” He pleaded the 5th when questioned by Congress. In 2023, Kirk said that the Second Amendment was “worth” some gun deaths; in 2022, he said empathy was a “made-up, new-age term that—it does a lot of damage.”
We Don’t Know Who Killed Him or Why: But it appears they took the shot from a rooftop about 430 feet away. After shooting
Kirk, they fled through a wooded area and left behind a bolt-action rifle, according to the FBI. In addition to the rifle, authorities have retrieved imprints of the shooter’s palm, forearm and footwear—but no shooter has been found. Two people have been detained and released.
What We May Know About the Gun: Three anonymous law enforcement officials told The New York Times said the gun was an “older-model Mauser,” the same rifle Nazi German troops used during World War II, which was imported in “large numbers after the war.” The Wall Street Journal reports investigators found bullets engraved with messages related to antifascism and transgender people. The conservative New York Post reported those details came from an “alleged ATF memo.” A source familiar with the investigation told the Post the Justice Department is investigating “descriptions alleged” in the memo, but couldn’t confirm the “description matched the evidence recovered at the scene.” A “senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation” told the New York Times the alleged memo had not been verified by AFT analysts and “did not match other summaries of the evidence.”
Update: As of about 9 a.m., the FBI in Salt Lake City asked for the public’s help identifying a person of interest. The photo shows a person in jeans, a black shirt with an American flag with what looks to be an eagle at the center, black sunglasses and a grey baseball cap.
Without Evidence, Right-Wing Called for “War,” Vengeance: “For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” President Donald Trump said in a taped address. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in the country today.” “This is war, this is war,” said Infowars’ Alex Jones. Oath Keeper founder Stuart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for January 6th (a sentence Trump later commuted), announced on Infowars that he was rebuilding his militia group to protect figures like Kirk. He called on Trump to “invoke the Insurrection Act” and “declare the left in this country is in obvious open rebellion against the law of the United States.” Elon Musk called the Left (not a party) “the party of murder.” Influencer and (unofficial) Trump advisor Laura Loomer said on X that “the Left are terrorists” and a “security threat.” She implied a mysterious “they” had sent the “trained sniper.” “More people will be murdered if the Left isn’t crushed with the power of the state,” she wrote. Christopher Rufo, a right-wing influencer who lives in Gig Harbor and popularized the false right-wing interpretation of critical race theory, suggested on X that the “radical left” was responsible for the shooting.
Hm: South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace told reporters that Democrats “own what happened today.” Asked, if by that logic, Republicans owned the assassination of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, Mace balked. “Are you kidding me? … We’re talking about Charlie Kirk right now.”
Another School Shooting: Two Colorado teens are in critical condition after another teen shot them at Evergreen High School less than one hour after Kirk was shot. The shooter shot himself and died. It’s the 47th school shooting this year, CNN reports.
In Washington: Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silent prayer for Kirk on the floor. After 30 seconds of silence, chaos reigned. Lauren Boebert said “silent prayers get silent results” (classic Protestant behavior) and called for spoken prayer. Democrats shouted Republicans had ignored a school shooting in Colorado earlier that day. Johnson said they could pray when they concluded business for the day, which led to more shouting (“and he could barely be heard trying to quell the brouhaha,” writes the New York Times.)
In Our Washington: Politicians are condemning political violence, including Gov. Bob Ferguson (“Violence is never the answer”), State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh (it’s a “warning to everyone”), and Attorney General Nick Brown (“Political violence will consume us all if we let it fester.”)
So…. How About That Weather: It’s quite nice. Fog is covering the city now, but it’ll burn off, and the day will be mostly sunny with a high near 73. Tomorrow, the clouds roll in, but the sun will come out again on Saturday. Sunday, there’ll be a chance of showers.
ICYMI: City Council voted 7-2 to expand police surveillance in Seattle this week, despite clear risks of police abuse and federal overreach. I watched at City Hall, where public commenters pleaded for the Council to take their concerns seriously for more than two and a half hours. It was clear most of them came to the dais with their minds made up.
So Free in the USA: Washington Attorney General Nick Brown warned that a Supreme Court decision authorizing federal immigration agents to stop anyone they think looks like an undocumented immigrant could lead to “race-based policing across this country.” Brown called the decision “shameful,” reports the Seattle Times. “It basically says that people of color in the United States of America, regardless of their citizenship, are second-class citizens in the eyes of the law.”
Also Free in the USA: Trump’s Department of Justice is demanding Washington State turn over its voter rolls within two weeks. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he won’t do it.
Bellevue Arts Museum Won’t Reopen … at least not as it was. Shelly Crocker, the “independent custodian tasked with charting a path forward for the institution,” told the Seattle Times that “its failure was proof that the concept…was not the form that the community wanted.’”
The Sonics Are Not Happening (But Go Ahead, Keep Dribbling): The Seattle Times reports there’s “‘no new news’” about NBA expansion after an owners meeting wrapped up in New York on Wednesday.
Who’s Coming? The Who, the band, on the North American farewell tour at Climate Change arena. They’ll be here on September 25. Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) won’t be. The band fired him earlier this year. Candlebox is opening.
It’s A Universal Emotion: Americans hate being invaded by the US military as much as anybody else. According to internal National Guard documents obtained by the Washington Post, its occupation of Washington DC is “being perceived as ‘leveraging fear,’ driving a ‘wedge between citizens and the military,’ and promoting a sense of ‘shame among troops and veterans.’”
He Can’t Say ‘You’re Fired’ Because Woke (The Law): Trump’s administration appealed a federal court ruling blocking him from firing Lisa Cook, a head of the Federal Reserve, the AP reports. He tried firing her over allegations of mortgage fraud, but really, he wanted an excuse to take control of the independent board.
New Worst Guy: After a surge in Oracle’s stock price, co-founder Larry Ellison has knocked Elon Musk to the lowly position of second richest living person on earth. (At least for now. Musk’s compensation package is still poised to turn him into the world’s first trillionaire.) “AI changes everything,” Ellison said in a statement about his company’s growth. Seems like the same old shit.
Mars Rover Finds Dead Microbes, Maybe: The rocks in a dry driver channel may contain the first evidence of ancient life on Mars. It’s inconclusive, but certainly something. With all the federal cuts, it’s incredible that we’re even learning about this. I hope the Mars Rover, Perseverance, keeps its job. Hard to pivot once you’re out there.
Bloquons Tout (“Block Everything”) Protests Sweep France: Some ideas are brilliantly simple. “Block everything” originated with the French right wing, but has been wholeheartedly embraced by the French left. French police arrested about 450 people for blocking everything yesterday. The French government collapsed Monday. Wednesday was the new Prime Minister’s first day. He’s already faced the threat of a no-confidence vote.
As I wrote this last blurb, a woman at this cafe asked her friend if he was moving to France. “Not now,” he said. “I’m busy.”
No one in the history of America has normalized political violence more than Donald J Trump.
@1 He literally campaigned on it.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” -Donald Trump
“Christopher Rufo, a right-wing influencer who lives in Gig Harbor and popularized critical race theory”
Rufo didn’t popularize Critical Race Theory. He popularized CRITICIZING Critical Race Theory. Get it right.
Since you mentioned it, Critical Race Theory claims that it is impossible for black people to be racist towards white people, because of the concocted Progressive cult mantra that “racism = prejudice + power”, and that white people have all the power and black people have no power.
When Decarlos Brown Jr. stabbed Iryna Zarutska to death on that train in Charlotte NC, and walked away saying “I got that white girl, I got that white girl”, he was OBVIOUSLY TOTALLY POWERLESS.
Bloquons Tout (“Block Everything”):
Does this include medical facilities that offer transgender care?
Decarlos Brown Jr. dismantled Iryna Zarutska’s White Privilege, and Abolished her Whiteness, so that’s a win for the proponents of Critical Race Theory.
“Kirk said that the Second Amendment was ‘worth’ some gun deaths”
Gotta respect a guy who practices what he preaches lol
Fuck Candlebox, once upon a time they had Tasty Gore kicked out of their studio space, so they could have it. Roger Daltrey’s living corpse can rape Candlebox for all I care.
Pretty good summation of the Kirk assassination over all. Nancy Mace being caught in a logic trap like that was morbidly enjoyable and some gosh darn good journalism by the reporter who posed the question.
@7 – I hope that someone like Decarlos Brown Jr. dismantles your White Privilege and Abolishes your Whiteness
@4 Actually, the specific definition of racism in the CRT movement’s bible of sorts, “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction” by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, is as follows: “Any program or practice of discrimination, segregation, persecution, or mistreatment based on membership in a race or ethnic group.” Nowhere in the entire book does it make the claim that it’s “impossible” for Black people (or anyone else) to be racist — or that power is a prerequisite element of racism.
@9 Yesterday was the chance to wish upon a falling (fascist) star, so you’re a little late. I’ll cross my fingers for you to get another chance, champ.
@10 – Patricia Bidol-Padva is who originally concocted the “racism = prejudice + power” cult mantra nonsense NewSpeak “definition” of “racism”, in 1970, claiming blacks can’t be racist to whites because of some nebulous “power” differential. She’s the literal start of all that bullshit.
Don’t try to dispute that CRT, at its core, holds the belief that blacks can’t be racist towards whites, because you are simply wrong.
Also, she’s as astonishingly ugly as any sensible person would expect her to be:
https://www.american.edu/spa/faculty/bidolpad.cfm
@4 The entire premise of CRT is that racism is not merely individual prejudice but is actually systemic and institutional so you bringing up a black individual killing a white lady has absolutely nothing to do with CRT. Congratulations.
@12 Also, does your user name mean that you molest 2 kids at once or that you molest both girls and boys equally? Just curious.
https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/2025/08/07/the-binary-continuum-of-left-v-right-assumes-whats-at-stake/
@12 – I don’t respond to naive idiots who believe that it’s impossible for blacks to be racist towards whites (you literally posted such nonsense the other day), except to say that I don’t respond to naive idiots who believe that it’s impossible for blacks to be racist towards whites .
Oops I meant @ 14 lol
I don’t respond to naive idiots who believe that it’s impossible for blacks to be racist towards whites
Typical republicans, always chomping at the bit to start a pointless war.
OBAMAAAAAAA
But muh blacks, boo hoo hoo, I jus wan muh cuntry BAAAAAAAAAA
This is a well written post!
@12 A lot of things were said in 1970 on both the left and the right that haven’t aged particularly well. Resurrecting that one long-ago quote as the left’s prevalent working definition of racism in 2025 is, to put it mildly, a stretch.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-killing-of-qanon-follower-was-self-defense-prosecutor-finds/
The family claims that even when staring down the barrel of a gun, the self-defense shooter should have been able to deescalate. What says The Stranger, or do they just do “radio silence” when gun violence saves the innocent?
@21 – @21 – “Resurrecting that one long-ago quote as the left’s prevalent working definition of racism in 2025 is, to put it mildly, a stretch.”
No it isn’t a stretch at all. In fact, the stereotypical goofy naive white Seattle Progressive, tbass1981, shat out that same nonsense just a few days ago. Many Seattle “progressives” believe in that cult bullshit (it’s the second #3 comment because The Stranger’s website fucked up):
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/09/08/80232222/slog-am-harrell-cosplays-as-a-progressive-trump-says-hes-not-declaring-war-on-chicago-and-it-finally-rained/comments/3
“@1 The definition of racism literally means you can’t be racist against white people. “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.”
Minority or marginalized. White people are neither in our country. No matter how many pearls you try to clutch.” – tbass1981 on September 8, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Checkmate
@23. Where muh flaver dip an’ 240oz bucket of Pibb Xtra!?
Oooooo hoooooo hooooooo
“In fact, the stereotypical goofy naive white Seattle Progressive, tbass1981”
If tbass1981 isn’t actually white, they have my condolences. I don’t want to mis-racialize anybody
Before we went woke we was WIDE AWAKE
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awakes
Altaian Tongan
The old rebel in me kind of wishes that the MAGA nuts who so desperately want to wage war on us commie pinko lefties to give it a go. They can hardly govern and despite the events of yesterday still think they’re invincible. I’ve never really been afraid of them because bigots–which they all are–by nature, are morons. The FO part of the FAFO equation would be something to see.
The rational part of me says the real answer is to start voting in people with a spine who will stand up to MAGA bullying (and that’s all it is, bullying). Seeing Democrats win recent special elections in places Republicans have owned is a spoiler for how the mid-term elections will go for Trump (read: horribly–even if he cheats).
I feel horribly for Charlie Kirk’s widow and his children–nobody deserves that. But that’s about the extent of my empathy to Charlie Kirk, who was unequivocally a bad guy, and that’s as far as I extend empathy to bad guys. The real tragedy is that so many young (white) men looked up to such an obvious bigot as a hero, as someone to be admired.
@23 You’re overlooking (deliberately, I suspect) the word “typically” in that definition, which means “usually, but not necessarily always.” Yes, members of any race can, in this formulation, be racist. The Stranger commenter you quote was incorrect to claim otherwise. But aside from the white-supremacist Black MAGA faction, Black racism just isn’t very common. It’s a disease that overwhelmingly afflicts the melanin-deficient.
@30: You can’t control who thinks who is a hero. That’s life. That’s not the tragedy. The real tragedy is being so intolerant of adversarial views that culminates in a killing.
@32 Yep, it’s a real tragedy that Kirk held such intolerant views.
He was a hateful jackass full of his own importance who was entirely willing to sacrifice other people’s lives for his own ideology. What goes around comes around.
Sorry, but I can’t sit down and talk with someone whose opening position is that members of my family are somewhere between mentally ill and an abomination. He ceded the presumption of discussing in good faith many years ago.
@30 – “They can hardly govern”
LOL is Bob Ferguson your “governor”? Do you live in Seattle under the government of the Seattle Shitty Clowncil? Have the Demoncraps goverened Washington State for decades?
It’s not that I think Kirk deserved to die; I am honoring his ethos by viewing his death as worth the price of freedom and muting my empathy. I’m just doing what he told me to do, why does that upset you? It’s the greatest honor!
@31 – “Black racism just isn’t very common. It’s a disease that overwhelmingly afflicts the melanin-deficient.”
It would have been a lot easier and more accurate to write “I’m naive and am never around groups of black people”.
“Black racism just isn’t very common. It’s a disease that overwhelmingly afflicts the melanin-deficient.”
You obviously don’t spend any time around Indian (from India) people either. North Indians absolutely hate South Indians, and South Indians absolutely hate North Indians, and it’s entirely racial. Grow up and quit being so twee and naive.
He didn’t deserve to die but we don’t have to whitewash his beliefs as nothing more than “adversarial views” just because the guy is dead.
If you care to visit r/Amerexit on Reddit, you’ll see a plethora of posts from parents seeking to leave the US due to school shootings. I wonder if the Kirk event will result in the same thing – parents pulling their kids out of college to move to Costa Rica. After all, last I checked, no suspect was in custody. This means it can happen again, and their aim may not be as good as it was this time, and a student is killed instead.
Can anyone explain why The Stranger consents to advertise for David Sedaris? Don’t misunderstand me, I love him. However, he’s interviewed with Bari Weiss a few times, and I find it interesting that there has been no outrage over this. He’s been consorting with the enemy, and I’m surprised he hasn’t been taken to task for that.
@38: He didn’t deserve to die. No comma but, just period.
@35: Makes sense.
@41, what comes after the but is for you, sweetie. I am not making excuses for his death, I am telling you to shove it.
Or maybe not (@35) CDizzle makes me dizzy.
@43: This is not a time for impertinence.
45 is that why you’re channeling phoebe today instead of coolidge
Jacques bloqué!
@41 clearly it was God’s will
@48: Clearly he is with God now.
Troll @37…
Did you ever try those blogs I told you about the other day?
In case you missed it, they were Pharyngula and Daily Kos.
Please go troll them and report back your results. After that, I have more “targets” for you. I look forward to hearing about your experience with sites that actively moderate.
@33
Me thinks doth project too much