Conservative firebrand and known bigot Charlie Kirk was shot and killed yesterday at an event at Utah Valley University for his organization Turning Point USA, according to the Associate Press. Kirk was famous for having started Turning Point in 2012 as a youth movement, targeting liberal college campuses with his particular brand of conservatism and hate. Kirk was 31-years-old when he died.
The event that Kirk was speaking at was a debate hosted by the college campus, one which had drawn a great deal of opposition from the student body. A petition calling for administrators at the university to bar Kirk from appearing had collected over 1,000 signatures, AP reports. At the time of this writing, little is known about the identity of the shooter, but police say that they do have a suspect in custody.
Newsweek reports that a number of prominent Democrats have made statements condemning the political violence against Kirk. “I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family,” writes former Presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Twitter. “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.” Former President Barack Obama had similar things to say about condemning political violence, which seemed to be the mood amongst the center left.
That being said, leftists across social media seems to be rejoicing at the news of Kirk’s death, and with good reason. You might remember that in 2023, Kirk called for “men to handle” transgender people “the way they did in the 50s and 60s,” advocating for violence against a marginalized community, according to Erin in the Morning. As a member of that community, I shed no tears at his passing.
Another quote from Kirk has been going viral in the wake of the shooting, according to Yahoo! News, namely a video of Kirk saying “But 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.” It seems like there will be a good number of people celebrating the conservative speaker’s death.
