Charlie Kirk's Assassination - Why The Right And Left Must Reject Political Violence

MAGA influencer and CEO of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed during the first leg of his “The American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. 

Videos plastered across social media show the well-known right-wing American influencer speaking during the event while sitting under a white tent festooned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong”. Roughly 20 minutes after Mr Kirk began the first leg of his tour, witnesses heard a single shot ring out amongst the crowd, and saw Mr Kirk reach up with his right hand as blood came from the left side of his neck. The videos cut as Kirk falls from his chair. 

Reports suggested that the 31-year-old conservative activist was in critical condition and receiving medical treatment for some time, but it was later confirmed by President Donald J. Trump on Truth Social that Mr Kirk had succumbed to his injuries.  

It is understood that the manhunt for the shooter and/or shooters remains underway after one individual who was arrested by police at Utah Valley University has been released. 

The fatal shooting of Mr Kirk can be best understood as the latest in a string of partisan political attacks in the US. At a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July of last year, President Donald J. Trump was grazed on the ear by one of a hail of bullets fired by a gunman. The incident saw one Trump supporter fatally shot and two others badly wounded before the shooter was killed by police. Nine months later, a man broke into the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro before setting fire to the home and forcing Shapiro and his family to flee. In June of this year, Minnesota’s top Democratic legislator and her husband were murdered in their home. These incidents reflect the dark shadow of political violence that has lingered over the US since its founding years: a nation scarred by four presidential assassinations and numerous attacks spanning the ideological spectrum. 

The Department of Homeland Security identified political violence as one of its top concerns for the year of 2025, with a Reuters investigation following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol reinforcing these concerns. The report concluded that the current rise in political violence is the highest since the 1970s. 

For those on the right, the killing of Charlie Kirk has become an ample opportunity to blame Loonie lefties and reinforce the worsening ideological divides in American politics. In Donald Trump’s own words, Mr Kirk has become a martyr for the MAGA movement, a martyr of “truth and freedom”, and a victim of the “radical left’s” rhetoric. While a minority of those who opposed Kirk’s views have used social media to argue how his death has been the result of his own actions, this only feeds into the far-rights agenda which will work to demonise those on the left in the coming days.

While Kirk’s own opinions on gun violence have sparked controversy, it begs the question, will anything in the way of gun control come from his death? The Trump administration faces two possible paths. It may double down on its defence of the Second Amendment, insisting that even the killing of one of its own cannot justify curtailing what has been deemed a fundamental right held by American citizens. Alternatively, this moment could mark a turning point. The loss of a far-right conservative figure might, at last, force President Trump to reckon with the nation’s entrenched culture of gun violence and pursue reforms to combat the growing issue of violence in American politics. If anything good can come from this, it will be the revocation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

President Donald J. Trump must recognise the urgency of America’s gun crisis, push for national legislation on firearms, and take responsibility for the senseless violence that continues under the protections of the Second Amendment. 

Illustrations: Will Allen/Europinion