Megathread: Charlie Kirk Shot at Utah Valley University Event
Kirk, 31, was shot as he spoke to a crowd at a Turning Point USA event. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
Please note that NSFW/NSFL videos must be labeled as such or they will be deleted
Edit: also keep in mind that initial information in these situations can often be inaccurate. Trusted outlets have conflicting reports about whether a suspect has been detained.
Edit 2: the campus has officially stated they release the initial subject. Donald Trump has stated Charlie Kirk is dead.
Finally a good guy with a gun
It’s all fun and games until Republicans use this as an excuse to further enforce their fascist agendas. Just glad this happened in Utah and not Illinois or California. Blue states will likely bear the brunt of the repercussions if there are any.
It’s all fun and games until Republicans use this as an excuse to further enforce their fascist agendas.
Republicans are marching National Guard soldiers into the largest cities in America on exaggerated "crime fighting" excuses. They have established an unaccountable militia with ICE hiding their identities and violating the civil rights of American citizens on exaggerated or fabricated drug/violence reasons. They've needed no legitimate excuses to do these things, yet they are actively doing them. This changes nothing on that front.
They'll make up whatever excuses they need either way so it doesn't really make a difference.
They're going to do fascism no matter what! They don't care about truth. They can just make shit up if they need to rile up their supporters.
It'll be interesting to see the contrast with the political response to this assassination compared to the Democratic Minnesota lawmaker that was assassinated a couple months ago
I get the distinct feeling conservatives won't be nearly as silent about this one
Except they haven't needed an excuse to date. I'm sick of this boogyman. Punch back, they haven't been pulling any punches.
It will be like the Iraq war.
Saudi Arabia was responsible, but we're going to attack Iraq instead.
This accelerates it for sure. I think more of what this will do is show us a clear line of liberals becoming fascist as they criticize "leftist violence".
And, to be clear, we have no idea what the motivation of the shooter was. THAT MOTIVATION DOES NOT MATTER. Please do not waste your time arguing with the fascist over this. They already made up their mind on how they would use this for their narrative. They control all media outlets.
Get off the internet and get ready to keep your family and neighbors safe. This was coming. But it's coming faster now. The liberals will only focus on condemning this violence NOT the state violence that is about to follow.
You mean like deploying troops in our cities?
Oh wait, they already did that.
Or, do you mean shipping people off the concentration camps?
Oh shit, that's already being done.
What you're upset about is that the fascism has stepped closer to YOU.
Oh, yeah, they will, but that's inevitable anyway. It won't occur to them that oppressing Dems will only make them stronger and more resolved. Nothing has created more terrorists than Conservative military operations.
They do that anyway. Fuck 'em.
Inb4 Fox News talking heads all get Secret Service protection, so Trump can continue watching them all day.
Just for the chance that this snowballs and we get more good guys with guns making moves like this, I'm buying a bag of popcorn kernels and cheap "champagne" (because I can't afford anything else).
I get the attempt at dark humor but honestly, damn, for me, that's a no.
Any politician that completely supports Trump is fair game at this point. Things will not return to normal by talking. If you dont wanna live in a dictatorship wake the fuck up. If you live in the US (i luckily dont) then learn how to use a gun, because its gonna get much much worse than the way it is right now.
How's this for dark humour?
I just have to ask, is it because another human being was shot or were you one of the people celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden?
Humor?
Trump ally Charlie Kirk suggests children should watch public executions
He ended up being the one being executed publicly
Reminder that this is Kirk's stance on guns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVc9l6pjxtI
Unfettered 2A is worth the gun deaths according to Charlie Idiot here.
ETA: holy shit, saw a clip and damn, that dude is dead.
Ironically this is exactly what the 2A was built for. To off tyrants.
Unlimited AR-15s and Glocks to every minority.
Unlimited AR-15s and Glocks to every minority.
This is unironically the same idea that started the Black Panthers. People noticed that peaceful unarmed protests were violently busted by the cops… But peaceful heavily armed protests were politely watched from across the street. So they started arming the people who were protesting, and those people were largely minorities.
Then logically one could infer that they would rather die than prevent the senseless violence.
EDIT: I’m not advocating for anyone’s death or praising what occurred. I just wanted to point to how moronic his stance was. Why would anyone say any death from gun violence is okay?
It would seem he put his beliefs to the test here and it looks awfully permanent too.
Give me liberty or give me death. Except some don't want liberty either...
"You will not get gun deaths to zero. You can significantly reduce them....by having more fathers in the home and more armed guards in front of schools."
I fucking burst out laughing. This guy was a walking meme.
I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
It has now been officially confirmed that he is in fact dead.
“god given rights” haha. Fucking clownery.
My non-mod opinion on this:
Trump is posting Kirk is dead.
Not going to celebrate, just noting:
"I can't stand the word 'empathy', I think it's a made up New Age term." - Charlie Kirk
Okay. Let me try to make a comment here that won't get obliterated as it's going to be real, REAL hard to dance within the lines on this.
My water heater started leaking over the weekend. It was only seven years old, but I suppose since the warranty was six years, I shouldn't complain? Anyway, I installed my new water heater today, so I can shower again. This one has a 12-year warranty, it might out live me.
I just took a shower, I feel great. I'll be going for a walk around sunset. It's been a good day.
There's so many layers of irony to this event. You can't make this shit up.
A man, who made a career downplaying gun violence and advocating against empathy for its victims, was shot while giving a talk about his favorite topic under a tent that said "Prove me wrong", on a college campus in a state that just lifted its ban on weapons on college campuses. His own quotes can be endlessly used to shut down any outrage at his ironic demise.
Charlie Kirk's final moments were spent being definitively and completely proven wrong.
If this wasn't going to used as an excuse to ban Trans people from owning firearms and for further violence against the opposition, it would be hilarious.
https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk-says-gun-deaths-worth-it-2nd-amendment-1793113
Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment
Trump ally Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter says.
The extent of Kirk’s injuries were not immediately clear.
trump asked for prayers. They’re going full Christian nationalist with their responses.
Kristi Noem: The secretary of Department of Homeland Security said, “Byron and I are lifting up Charlie, Erika, and their family in our prayers right now.”
Pete Hegseth: “An incredible Christian, American, and human being. May the healing hand of Jesus Christ be upon him,” the secretary of the Department of Defense said in a post on X.
Mike Johnson: The House Speaker asked to pray “for our good friend, Charlie Kirk,” in a post on social media.
Dan Bongino: The deputy FBI director said, “I don’t have the words. God help Charlie and his family.”
Nazis are so goddamn weird.
Audience member: “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?”
Kirk: “Too many.”
The same audience member went on say the number is five, and proceeded to ask if Kirk knows how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years.
Kirk: “Counting or not counting gang violence?”
Seconds later, the sound of a pop is heard and the crowd screams as Kirk gets shot and recoils in his seat.
Remember: The vast majority of mass attacks in the US have no connection to transgender people. From January 2013 to the present, of the more than 5,700 mass shootings in America (defined as four or more victims shot and killed), five shooters were confirmed as transgender, said Mark Bryant, founding executive director of the Gun Violence Archive.
Interesting reflection of Lemmy demographics that I haven't seen much "But he has a wife and kids, we shouldn't be celebrating his death uwu" rhetoric. Apparently even the most staunch centrists here acknowledge the harm Toiler Paper USA has done to the US populace.
There's some insane laundering of his legacy going on now over on Reddit and through American news outlets though, as if he didn't call Paul Pelosi's attacker a "patriot" or dismiss school shootings as a necessary evil of the 2nd amendment. MSNBC even fired a political analyst over calling him "divisive."
I'm not one of those people who blame every ill of the world on the "neoliberal cucks" or whatever, but damn if they don't have a point regarding the corporate capture of the United States news media currently.
He didn't believe in empathy, so I'm going to honour him by not having empathy for him. He was in a position of authority and power and advocated for gun violence over the lives of kids, saying the deaths in school shootings are "worth it". I can only sympathise for his poor children though. Jesus!!
I don't live in America but I heard 3 kids are currently in critical condition after a school/mass shooting. It's weird how this got way more media coverage
Its in moments like these that I really appreciate non corporate social media. Everywhere outside the fediverse all I see is people freaking out, acting like this is the first shooting to ever happen in the united states. Even supposed leftists are just like "I don't agree with the man but no one deserves to get killed over their beliefs".
They seem to have forgotten that people get killed over way dumber shit all the time. Personally I care about all the other shootings a lot more than this one. Especially the school shooting in Colorado that happened the same afternoon, which is being mostly ignored.
There are even lots of comments that condemn anyone making light of his death, or even just making comments about his politics. This dissent they condemn is almost nowhere to be found though, because algorithms bury it all straight to the bottom. The only opinion allowed to be seen is "I'm horrified look at me".
Coming back to a place where a real discussion can be had makes me realize just how important this project really is. We need more spaces that we truly own.
Trump blames harsh language for Kirk's death
Trump posted a video that appeared to be filmed in the Oval Office Wednesday evening on Truth Social, blaming Kirk's death on harsh political rhetoric.
He said "violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree."
He added: "For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now."
U.S. terror experts have warned of rising threats from so-called stochastic terrorism, in which sometimes unstable individuals are inspired to violence by hate speech and scenarios they see online and hear echoed by public figures.
Whaaaaattt??? I am so totally shocked to hear this accusation coming from Trump.
After the FBI has already apparently arrested and released 2 suspects... That's another great thing about firing every FBI agent that was qualified to do their job in retaliation for Jan 6th. You never quite know what's incompetence vs conspiracy these days.
I find the demands from the far right to have empathy for Kirk so distasteful... I see them dive into their favourite victim role so quickly and all the woe is us and the "See, the left is dangerous" stupid rhetoric.
Kirk himself said that empathy was destroying the world, why do we need to feel empathy for that asshole now?! Like always the right only cares when it affects them...
I'm soooo tired about the nonsense from the far right.
This attack is only going to galvanize the far right, so I sure hope that the shooter turns out to be right wing. If he's left wing, I fear for the lives of many of us. The nazis are trigger happy.