Activist Charlie Kirk Assassinated in Utah

By Moe White –

Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative Republican activist, was shot and killed on September 10, 2025 at Utah Valley University, the first stop of his new “American Comeback Tour.”

The political assassination was condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Former Democratic Representative Gabby Giffords from Arizona, who was severely wounded in an assassination attempt in 2011 that killed six and wounded 13 others, said, “The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, who hosted Kirk as a guest on his podcast last March, called the shooting “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.”

Republican President Donald Trump posted news of the killing on his Truth Social account, while Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) noted that the state has, and applies, the death penalty.

Assassinations Over the Years

The murder of Kirk is the latest in a long line of political violence in the United States, violence that has been exacerbated by the easy accessibility of guns and the refusal of Congress to pass any laws restricting them. Most recently, a number of Republican-led states have enacted laws recognizing concealed carry permits from other states, and the Administration has eased restrictions on restoring gun ownership rights to some convicted criminals.

Within this writer’s lifetime, the vast majority of political assassinations in the US have been of progressive and Democratic leaders, beginning with the murders of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s.

Three Republican presidents have been subjects of unsuccessful assassination attempts, beginning with Gerald Ford in 1975-6, Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Donald Trump in 2024. Yet for the most part, no one in the GOP has stood for gun control since James Brady—Reagan’s press secretary—was severely and permanently wounded in the attempt on his boss’s life.

More recently, two state legislators were the victims of political assassination attempts. State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed, while State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, survived.

Assassinations and Mass Shootings

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, (“Brady’s law”), first introduced in 1987, was passed by the Democratic Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. It requires licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks on individuals seeking to purchase a firearm.

The law now uses the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to prevent individuals who have been convicted of serious crimes or found to have certain mental illnesses, from acquiring firearms. However, because it contains the huge loophole of not regulating secondary or third-party sales at gun shows, exhibitions, or at flea markets, it is easier than ever before for angry civilians to obtain guns—including high-powered rifles and weapons of mass destruction—and use them with little or no training.

While the death of a political activist is a sad event for his families and followers, we also note that his assassination occurred as he literally refused to answer an audience question about gun violence.

Irony of Kirk’s Position on Gun Violence

The Associated Press reported: “Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

‘Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?’ the person asked. Kirk responded, ‘Too many.’

The questioner followed up: ‘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.

Then a single shot rang out.”

It was a typical response: a refusal to answer the question asked, but an immediate pivot to implicating “gang violence”—which in right-wing circles means Black people. But in fact, according to the well-respected Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 3,000 mass shootings since 2015, including 488 in 2024, and, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker, 356 already in 2025.

The number of such shootings by transgender people is miniscule, though specifics differ. Lead Stories, citing the Gun Violence Archive, noted five out of 5,729 shootings since 2013. The Trace listed four incidents involving trans or nonbinary shooters since 2018.

The Violence Project database, which tracks mass shootings in public places with four or more people killed (excluding the shooter) since 1966, lists only one case involving a transgender perpetrator: the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville. If convicted of the shooting at the Minneapolis church earlier this month, that perpetrator would raise the number of transgender shooters to two. Out of 3,000 to 6,000 in total.

Is there an answer to such endemic, epidemic gun violence in the United States? Other nations have successfully banned guns, or regulated their use, or imposed severe restrictions and penalties on those who abuse weapons. So far, the US remains an outlier that will not, or cannot, do so.