“This is no time for politics!” works well, too.
In the seven second close-up shooting clip, the last words he says before being hit are “gang violence”. (I don’t know what words came before that.)
That was my first thought. Going for a center-chest shot and pulled. Or for a head shot and went slightly low.
And indeed, without the security effort that goes with, e.g. a presidential candidate, a would-be assasin of a minor celebrity will have plenty of time to prep and to wait for the right shot. Damn.
And @Jack_Batty is right, the close-in vid looked very gruesome, wish it had not been the first thing that popped on my screen (BTW in this all-video-all-the-time age, every major such event could have a dozen Zapruders).
I think it will matter very little for the blowback. MAGA will cast the shooter as a lefty, no matter what details emerge.
Personally I think it’s too early to say. No doubt many on the left had ill will toward him, far more so than the right. But assuming it wasn’t just a fluke shot, a person who could make a fatal shot at 180m is either ex-military or civilian who’s done quite a bit of range training.
If it’s a righty, it’ll be a nutter with some really convoluted politics that led him to think Kirk isn’t conservative enough, or was secretly a lizard man who replaced the real Charlie Kirk.
If it’s a lefty, it’ll be a kind we haven’t seen before.
Assuming that it was a lefty, it will be used by the right to push for more repression, if it was a right winger, then the issue is usually forgotten because if it is not, it will lead to big can of worms to be open for the right wing narrative.
FWIW history points to many assassins to be friendly in the past to the one they killed, they kill usually because they feel betrayed, specially by the ones that they helped gain power.
Or, someone who agreed with Kirk’s ideology and messages, and chose an opportunity to create a martyr for the cause.
Wessel, but let’s not go there.
Killing those with whose policies you disagree is horrible, and spawns like behavior from other crazies.
Hopefully it wasn’t a leftist who did this, but as noted it may not not make a difference.
Vengeful keyboard warriors are lighting up social media, egging on those who may not hide behind their laptops.
[quote=“Darren_Garrison, post:102, topic:1022916”]
In the seven second close-up shooting clip, the last words he says before being hit are “gang violence”. (I don’t know what words came before that.)-
[/quote]Video posted on social media shows the moment Charlie Kirk was shot and the seconds leading to the incident. Kirk was being asked questions about mass shootings in America.
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” a person asks. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responds right before he is shot.
Counting or not counting the school shooting that happened in Colorado today?
A large number of the youths liked this guy, huh? Did he have a molecule of cool?
Maybe the shooter was a right-winger who thought Kirk had shifted his message too much in support of keeping the Epstein files secret. (I believe his most recent opinion on the EFs was that people should trust the administration when it comes to the files.)
It absolutely won’t. I’d put the odds at like 1:3 a left wing political motivation, 1:3 right wing motivation (some bonkers qanon or whatever), 1:3 apolitical nutjob (or so all over the shop that it’s impossible to pin to one side or the other).
But it doesn’t matter this is going to be treated as if AOC personally planned it, regardless of the facts. And the media will give zero push back.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be a relative of a victim in the Nashville shooting cited by @mozchron in Post #6. That’s just my idle speculation, obviously.
Video posted on social media shows the moment Charlie Kirk was shot and the seconds leading to the incident. Kirk was being asked questions about mass shootings in America.
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” a person asks. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responds right before he is shot.
And THAT discussion sprang from Kirk discussing how many mass shooters are trans. (I’m not kidding.)
This late, all I’m seeing online gives Trump as the one and only source for Kirk being dead. I’d like to see another source.
But as was noted above: this is wonderful for Donald. It will keep the Epstein Birthday Book out of the news for days, at least.
And frankly, it’s good for Donald in other ways: Kirk was (is?) only 31 and had built a political organization (Turning Point USA) that many say is stronger than the RNC. He is or was tremendously talented at motivating people to give money and vote the way he wanted. Some had said that he might well be the most likely successor to Trump.
Nice for Trump not to have to worry about him anymore.
Indeed. I was in a play in high school where my character got shot. We used a blood squib about the size of a marble. That was enough to make half the stage a gory mess.
Agreed, but if someone was going to get gunned down, at least it’s someone who considered it an acceptable price to pay.
Yeah that’s a good call. An Epstein nutter could fit the bill all sorts of ways.
As I previously noted:
Trump has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until 6pm Sunday night.
Cynical, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
Both of the men who took aim at Donald in the past 13 months were right-wingers who felt Donald wasn’t rightist enough. We can’t rule out that being the case here. (And as some have said, the evident marksmanship of the shooter seem to argue on the ‘right winger’ side, at least to some extent.)
Social media reaction on X is probably horrifyingly anti-left; on Bluesky there’s a lot of quoting of Kirk’s remarks on how we have to expect gun deaths as the price of the Second Amendment. I liked George Takei’s idea best:
Of course if Kirk is dead this wish is in vain, but I like it much better than the celebrating some are doing.
100%.
I am relieved to observe that my reaction is one of horror, sickness, and depression (and I viscerally despised this guy).
If I to pick the most prominent and effective fascist agitator besides DJT himself, Kirk would definitely have been in the Top 5 and may very well have been No. 1.
Major shit is about to hit the fan over this. It may be an Archduke Ferdinand level moment.