Charlie Kirk Shot and Killed In Utah

[Cristiano]

No, I won’t be shedding any tears for Charlie Kirk

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Charlie Kirk raised money to try to make bail for Paul Pelosi's attacker.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I guess we could say that one indication of a person's character is knowing who grieves for them when they're gone.

Edit: More on MAGA revenge.

MAGA Calls For Vengeance Following Charlie Kirk’s Killing

 

[Cindy Claveau]

FBI release images of 'person of interest' in Charlie Kirk shooting

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Reading all the articles I'm seeing on the MAGA reaction, it occurs to me that one purpose of the shooting might have been to stir up a "revolution", ala' John WIlkes Boothe back when.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

To my previous point:

 

[Cristiano]

Side note - I am a huge NPB fan

 

[Innula Zenovka]

THE SPECTACLE MADE FLESH

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Spectacle and our psychotic influencer society lately...and then Charlie Kirk got assassinated.

www.nefariousrussians.com

The hit did something I haven’t seen before. It spooked the political influencers. They are scared. Many of them spent last night issuing lengthy, serious statements on X about the gravity of the situation. Some of them are calling it a 9/11 event — a 9/11 for the influencer class.

Political assassinations are one thing. Killing a president, however horrible, was seen as within the rules of “the game.” But influencers? Political commentators? They were supposed to be a protected class. Their free speech was supposed to matter. It was supposed to be protected by “the rules.” Many of them see themselves in Charlie Kirk. And they are clearly afraid for their lives. The world — their world — has turned upside down. Nothing will be the same to them. And it’s not just the influencers on Charlie Kirk’s team. The liberal and left wings of the influencer class are panicking, too. If a righty influencer can be whacked, so can they. The rules have changed.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Side note - I am a huge NPB fan

She makes a valid point. How fast did the Minnesota shooting fade from the front page? Kirk is dominating the news, several layers down.

I'd be just as happy never to think about him again.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

From the Onion: Too soon?

Kirk Loses Gun Debate By Long Shot.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Why is the right always so utterly gobsmacked by the arrival of the most easily predicted results of their nonsense? "Call for violence: get violence" does not seem, to me, to be a difficult equation to grasp. In the end, it doesn't matter what this shooter's politics turn out to be, if he or she even had any at all. The point is MAGA has put violence in the water and all the fish are swimming in it. This fellow seems to have been personally responsible for a lot of calls to violence.

There was an unpublished (to the best of my knowledge) study conducted by a researcher of my acquaintance that attempted to determine whether capital punishment is effective in preventing future crime. Cleverly, he compared media coverage of executions with murder rates in the areas where the executions were most covered. He reasoned that if capital punishment works as a deterrent, then the murder rate should fall for some time after the execution. In fact, the data suggested that the exact opposite occurred. Murder rates went up! His hypothesis was that executing criminals "taught" (for want of a better term) that killing was a way to solve a problem. Killing was an option that was on the table. The execution "put killing in the water." Get enough people thinking those thoughts, and some of them are going to take action.

I'm truly sorry for this fellow and his family, even though he was Nazi scum. Who knows? Maybe next week he was going to have an epiphany, renounce his positions, and become a force for good. I know it's unlikely, but, hey, so was Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus.

Now, the speculation part. As someone who is reasonably proficient with at least some firearms, the pictures of the scene make it look like whomever the shooter was, they made one hell of a shot. That's highly trained sniper stuff -- if this was "some kid with a screw loose," he's the luckiest idiot to pull a trigger since Lee Harvey Oswald made two precise hits on a moving target from hundreds of yards away with a cheap rifle that was complete crap. Odds are, this shooter had some serious skills -- and those folks, as a group, tend to lean a bit to the right, politically. I won't be a bit surprised if this shooter turns out to be more MAGA'ish than not.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Now, the speculation part. As someone who is reasonably proficient with at least some firearms, the pictures of the scene make it look like whomever the shooter was, they made one hell of a shot.

A shot of about 200 yards. I target practice at times (sidearms) and my husband is ex-mil. He said that 200 yards should be an "easy shot" for an experienced shooter with a scope.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I might just put up a flag on my front porch and keep it at full mast, just to spite DJT.

 

[Khamon]

Oh, brother. Here we go. Please, can the shooter just be a disgruntled redneck? Or maybe Rush Limbaugh raised from the dead?

I dunno. In all honesty, the perfect artery severing shot, the smooth escape, the "left behind" weapon with "prints," and the proximity of clueless suspects, accumulate to suggest a professionally hired job. That could've been any side for one of many reasons. But this doesn't seem like a random radicalized redneck or such.

 

[Casey Pelous]

A shot of about 200 yards. I target practice at times (sidearms) and my husband is ex-mil. He said that 200 yards should be an "easy shot" for an experienced shooter with a scope.

Ah. Looked longer in the aerial shot I saw. Looking at the lower angle footage, yeah, looks like about that.

Well, I should be capable of coming up with another baseless theory ..... gimme a minute .....

 

[Khamon]

To my previous point:

Probably not, he does serve as a better martyr than Oranga McOrangiface, but the command likely didn't come from the top.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Charlie was the victim of a school shooting while downplaying school shootings, while an actual school shooting was happening in Colorado. America in 2025.

I have heard a couple of reporters saying "while he was talking about gang violence", which is the line he used to try and redirect the discussion away from school shootings. Even on NPR. This is like a crime reporter equivocating on whether murder is bad.

From the Onion: Too soon?

Seems to have been changed, I'm now seeing "Witnesses Assumed Charlie Kirk Shooter Was Just Ordinary Gunman On School Campus"