Charlie Kirk’s Shooting Puts Focus On Rising Political Violence In The U.S.

The conservative influencer was shot and killed on Wednesday while speaking at a college campus.

The killing of far-right media figure Charlie Kirk is yet another chapter in the increasing political violence in the U.S. over the past decade.

Kirk, the 31-year-old head of the right-wing youth group Turning Point USA, was shot by an unknown gunman on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. He was pronounced dead later at a hospital.

In just the past year-and-change, there were two attempted assassinations against President Donald Trump, then a candidate, the murders of two Minnesota state legislators and their family members, the arson attack on Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home and the shooting of the Centers for Disease Control headquarters — and now, what appears to be the assassination of a famous far-right figure with close ties to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Other recent episodes included the shooting of Republican congressmen in 2017, the Unite the Right rally at Charlottesville that left one protester dead in 2017, the attempted mail bombing of Democratic congressmen and other political figures in 2018, the attack on Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi in 2022, the 2020 plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and, of course, the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The motives for all of these varying threats or acts of violence are not always clear or straightforward. But what they share in common is that they are all targeted at elected or other political figures.