Content warning: mentions of death and gun violence.
Charlie Kirk, a right-wing agitator, was shot and killed on Wednesday, September 10, while speaking at an event at a Utah college. His death has sparked intense debate about gun violence, political polarisation and the media attention that this one high-profile case has generated.
Charlie Kirk was a 31-year-old commentator whose platform was dedicated to advancing far-right and conservative causes. He played a major role in rallying young Republican voters and was a close ally of President Donald Trump.
In his speeches, he often employed anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and called for a total ban on gender-affirming care in the US. He was also one of the major voices against gun regulation in the US. In a 2023 speech, he said that some gun deaths every year are “worth it” in order to preserve Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
Kirk was speaking at a debate at a Utah college when he was fatally shot. Right before he was killed, he was taking questions from the audience about mass shootings and gun violence. “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” one person asked, to which Kirk responded, “Too many.”
A follow-up question then enquired: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked, before the shot that killed him was fired.
In a statement issued after his death, police said that two men had been detained in connection with the assassination, but they were later released. “There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter,” the statement further read.
Condemnations of the act and messages of condolences for Kirk’s family poured in across the political aisle. Trump also released a video in which he gave a divisive speech about Kirk’s death, calling him a “martyr for truth and freedom” and blaming the “radical left” for the killing.
The shooting also sparked renewed calls for gun regulation and intense international debate, with many raising the point that this one high-profile case will gather much more media attention than other events unfolding in the US and the world.
Only an hour after Charlie Kirk was killed, a shooting took place in a Colorado high school, where a student opened fire and wounded two classmates. The suspected shooter then turned the gun on himself and died from a self-inflicted wound.
In 2025 alone, a total of 309 mass shootings have already taken place in the US (as of August 31), with 302 people having been killed and many more injured.
“The shooting of Charlie Kirk makes clear that this crisis doesn’t care about ideology or politics — it endangers us all,” the group March For Our Lives stated on social media. “We know the solutions: stronger background checks, extreme risk protection orders, accountability for the gun industry, and more. What stands in the way is not a lack of answers, but political obstruction. Every day of inaction costs lives. It’s long past time for leaders of every party to choose people over politics and act.”
A group of pro-Palestinian activists also shared: “Charlie Kirk, a right wing political ‘activist’ was shot in the neck today and died. The Internet screams: ‘graphic,’ ‘unwatchable’, ‘unimaginable terror’. For two years Gaza has lived through horrors that no words can hold. Children carrying other children in bloodied backpacks. Bodies torn apart in buildings, shreds hanging. Brains on the floor. Burns too horrific to imagine. Horror upon Horror.
“And this is what’s “too graphic”? A man who was a vocal Islamophobe and bigot who glorified violence. He celebrated shootings, cheered on aggression, and thrived on spreading hate. His life was a platform for division and fear. But here’s the question we can’t ignore: why is it that when white men die, the world mourns and when 20000 children do, silence fills the streets?”
Kristen Browde, President of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, said in a statement: “We mourn any loss of life to political violence. It is abhorrent and has no place in our country. At the same time, we must recognize that Charlie Kirk spent his career spreading anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric that put many in our community at risk. His words fueled harassment, threats, and fear for queer and transgender people.
“We also need to be honest about the role of guns in this violence. Hate becomes deadly when paired with easy access to firearms. The solution is not more weapons but reasonable gun regulation that protects us all.
“We denounce the harm caused both by political violence and by rhetoric like his, and we recommit ourselves to the fight for a safer and more equal future,” the statement concluded.
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