An audience member had just asked the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
Charlie Kirk was unable to provide a nuanced answer about gun violence before he lay bleeding on the floor. But we do have a record of his support for people who use firearms:
It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.
Charlie Kirk 2023
Canadian political writer Cole Bennett described Kirk:
Charlie Kirk was a hateful, bigoted, vile and disgusting man. He believed women shouldn’t have access to lifesaving healthcare. He spread the falsehood that women lie about rape and that statistics on violence against women were exaggerated. He denied the right of Palestinians to exist. He insisted that gun violence was justified if it protected the Second Amendment. And he believed trans people had no right to live as themselves.
The Anti-Defamation League described Kirk’s organization TPUSA:
- Turning Point USA TPUSA is a right-wing student organization.
- Founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk, TPUSA has raised millions from conservative donors and has played a significant role in GOP politics and elections.
- Since the group’s founding, Kirk has moved further to the right and has promoted numerous conspiracy theories about election fraud and Covid-19 and has demonized the transgender community.
- Kirk also promotes Christian nationalism: the idea that Christians should dominate the government and other areas of life in the US.
- TPUSA continues to attract racists to the group. Numerous TPUSA representatives have made bigoted remarks about minority groups and the LGBTQ+ community.
- White nationalists have attended TPUSA events, even though the group says it rejects white supremacist ideology.
- Kirk has created a vast platform for extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists, who speak and attend his annual AmericaFest and other events sponsored by TPUSA.
TPUSA claims to have a presence at more than 3,500 high schools and college campuses nationwide. It runs the controversial “Professor Watchlist,” which seeks to “expose” professors who allegedly “discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” It also launched a “School Board Watchlist” in 2021, ostensibly to expose teachings TPUSA believes are “dangerous,”….
According to an article by Political Research Associates, starting sometime in 2019, Kirk spent “two years of discipleship under a California megachurch pastor” Rob McCoy and “now says the church should accept its rightful role as counselor to and moral authority of the government.” He created TPUSA Faith, a division of TPUSA, in 2021, which is dedicated to empowering Christians to put their faith into action. Kirk also has a radio show on the Christian Salem Radio Network
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2020, Kirk promoted the “seven mountains,” an idea associated with the dominionism movement, which argues that Christians should be involved in seven spheres of influence: government, media, education, business, arts and entertainment, church and family.
Kirk is very active in the MAGA movement. He organized students for the 2020 Stop the Steal demonstrations and led a Stop the Steal rally in Arizona. On January 6, 2021, Kirk worked with other organizations to bring hundreds of Trump supporters to the rally in Washington, D.C. before the storming of the Capitol.
Tylor Bowyer, the chief operation officer of TPUSA, was actively involved in the 2016 Trump campaign and still plays an influential role in GOP politics in Arizona. After the 2020 election, Bower was part of a scheme by Arizona Trump supporters to overturn then-President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Kirk has also spoken about what he sees as the evils of the leftist agenda and the Democrats. After FBI agents seized documents illegally stored at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, Kirk encouraged retribution suggesting that “state attorneys general that are Republican have to authorize raids against Soros groups, BLM, Planned Parenthood, the alphabet mafia, groomers, chemical castration of children, now.” After a white supremacist attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Kirk asked that a “hero” bail out the attacker.
Kirk and TPUSA also focus on “culture war” issues like Critical Race Theory. In 2021, Kirk went on a “Exposing Critical Racism” tour at eight universities around the country, which painted Kirk as a hero battling a society that “has devolved into a segregationist regressive state, particularly on our college campuses.”
In June 2022, TPUSA joined forces with America First Legal, founded by former Trump administration official Stephen Miller. An article in the conservative publication The Post-Millennial reported that Miller and Kirk were planning to work together to fight against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs on college campuses. Many organizations offer DEI courses to employees as a way of battling racism and bigotry.
During visits to college campuses, Kirk verbally attacks and demonizes the transgender community. In April 2022, at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Kirk made a statement about boys and girls using the same bathroom, adding “One of the reasons is that we tried to reconfigure society to accommodate and pander to a hypervocal minority that itself will never actually be happy regardless of how many changes we make for the alphabet mafia [a reference to the LGBTQ community], it’s never going to be enough…”
TPUSA is also beginning to get involved in far-right filmmaking. In September 2022, the group released “The Enemy Within: FBI Whistleblower,” which features right-wing conspiracy theorist John Guandolo, who has demonized the FBI and promoted anti-Muslim tropes. In the film, Guandolo encourages people to take the law into their own hands …
TPUSA has ties to a range of right-wing extremists and has generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right.
Kirk has created a vast platform for extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists, who speak and attend his annual AmericaFest and other events sponsored by TPUSA. AmericaFest has showcased extreme rhetoric from speakers and attendees and has attracted white supremacists…
TPUSA’s leadership and activists have made multiple racist or bigoted comments and have been linked to a variety of extremists.
Among other goals, Kirk’s associates want to impose their form of Christianity on the American nation. It is a form not recognized by church leaders who teach the words of Saint Matthew:
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Martin Luther King Jr. said those were great but difficult to follow words. In his 1963 book, Dr. King taught:
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Cole Bennett correctly wrote that Kirk’s murder will not advance any of the causes he opposed. Violence against leaders is most often a consequence of damaged trust in political and social systems. It is perpetrated by isolated and disenfranchised people who live outside the rules of society. Kirk’s organization had plenty of those, so the immediate future is a dangerous time for moderate American political figures.
Categories: USA
in-sights.ca 
As usual, President Trump can be counted upon to make matters worse.
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5537187/trump-charlie-kirk-blames-left
From the Oval Office he says:
“Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.”
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
He mentions his attempted assassination, the killing of an insurance company CEO, and the attempted assassination of a GOP congressman as proof, all while omitting any reference to attempts or actual killings of elected Democrats.
He calls Kirk a martyr, orders all US flags to be flown at half-mast, and pledges to posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. These actions are all a full-throated endorsement of everything Kirk stood for, most of which is detailed in Norm’s article, and is essentially a call to arms similar to the rhetoric he used to gather and incite the January 6th mob activities at the Capitol. He’s throwing more logs on the fire he lit in the first place.
It is indeed a dangerous time for moderate American political figures. But it should also be recognized that it is a dangerous time for just about every American. Because harm is not just being perpetrated by isolated and disenfranchised people who live outside the rules of society. It is being engineered and perpetrated by the very government that should be trusted to protect all Americans, using many government agencies (including Commerce, Justice, and Homeland Security) led by incompetent zealots to rip away safeguards once considered sacrosanct. The Department of Heath and Human Services alone will arguably cause many unnecessary future deaths. Obvious (and odious) moves are being made to suppress and corrupt the voting systems for the coming midterm elections. These actions are supported by a captured Congress, and a compliant, co-opted Supreme Court.
Violence cannot be condoned. But if citizens believe they have no realistic avenue of relief from very real threat, they become dangerous.
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Mr Edwardson writes: “As usual, President Trump can be counted upon to make matters worse.”
While it is hard to believe but President Trump somehow got something else wrong.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/poland-russia-ukraine-war-live-trump-putin-drones-nato-news-b2825103.html
““Poland has rejected Donald Trump’s speculation that Russian drones breaching Polish airspace might have been “a mistake”.”
“Talking to reporters yesterday, Trump said the incursion could have been unintentional while adding: “I’m not happy about anything to do with the whole situation.””
“Poland’s foreign minister shot back at him on X, and wrote: “No, that wasn’t a mistake”.”
In an explanatory video BBC reporter Sarah Rainsford was not remotely ill informed as she stood over a Russian Gerbera drone.
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/czewd31724lo
The Gerberas shot down over Poland had a purpose. Since this weapon can hold deadly high explosive – or none at all – all such drones must be shot down. Wasting ammunition needed to defend against larger drones arriving in the next waves…
Ms Rainsford makes clear the drones over Poland were not laden with high explosive. They were meant to be shot at. There’s no way sending decoys could be accidental or a mistake.
What’s the Gerbera made of? Polystyrene. Russia has made huge numbers of them. To accomplish what? Overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses..
“It is a cheap long-range drone that Ukrainian intelligence says is assembled from kits supplied by Chinese manufacturer Skywalker Technology at Russia’s Yelabuga facility.”
It appears that perhaps…
A/ no one briefed President Trump properly or
B/ no one was asked to brief President Trump properly.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gerbera-drones-range-poland-russia-b2824529.html
“It can be used as a decoy, drawing the attention of air defenses away from much pricier Shahed drones, which carry powerful warheads. However, analysts say that since its introduction, other versions of the Gerbera with light warheads or reconnaissance equipment have emerged.”
“Gerberas are usually employed as part of a mix of systems,” said Fabian Hinz, research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “It therefore seems possible that the incursion featured other Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems of which we have not yet seen debris.”
For those pondering how to defend the Canadian Arctic this should be a wake up call.
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Proper briefings for Trump? Not likely. This is another example of the consequences of Trump’s penchant for surrounding himself with “yes-men”, competency optional.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/trump-intelligence-briefing-frequency-00338946
The staged public meetings where he regularly receives cringeworthy tributes from his fawning cabinet members reveals much about where and why ill-informed chaos reigns. Anyone working anywhere near his orbit must be loyal and obsequious, and willing to tell him what he wants to hear, facts be damned. That’s if he’s even listening or capable of understanding the topic.
A competent and engaged Chief of Staff, for instance, would advise Trump that the country (not to mention his legacy) would benefit greatly through his use of the Presidency to tone down the rhetoric and appeal for unity at this time. Instead here he is using Fox News to throw more logs on the fire this morning:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/trump-fox-friends-charlie-kirk-shooting
But here’s the real scary part. Even if the prayers of many are answered and Trump is somehow removed dead or alive from office, a Charlie Kirk clone named J.D. Vance is eagerly waiting and Constitutionally authorized to assume the Presidency.
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Indeed.
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Political yes-men and policy sycophants aren’t President Trump’s only self-created “intelligence” problem.
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/trump-us-diplomats-union-email-b2825138.html
“US diplomats are reportedly fearful of expressing views that contradict the administration’s official stance, fearing dismissal.”
“A State Department union email warned staff that the current environment is “unlike anything we’ve seen,” advising that any statement could be politicised.“
“This climate of fear follows a series of high-profile dismissals and policy shifts within US intelligence and foreign service agencies.”
“Examples include the sacking of intelligence officials for reports contradicting administration claims on Venezuela and Iran, and the removal of the Bureau of Labor Statistics head.”
“The White House’s focus on the State Department has also involved dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, impacting international aid efforts.”
That Venezuelan speedboat? A huge threat to America?
https://apnews.com/article/trump-military-drugs-boat-venezuela-5d28da68e3ea1b5b1b14829af8aadd7b
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military strike on what the Trump administration says was a drug-carrying speedboat from Venezuela came after the vessel had turned around and was heading back to shore, raising fresh questions as members of Congress are demanding more information about the provocative attack.”
“National security officials acknowledged during a closed briefing this week on Capitol Hill that the boat carrying 11 people, described by the Trump administration as Tren de Aragua gang members, was fired on multiple times by the U.S. military after it had changed course, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. The New York Times first reported the development.”
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A continuing theme:
All those girl-men book-reading WOKEISTS? Stone cold killers.
“Reporter: The president of Venezuela called the strike on the boat illegal “
“Trump: What’s illegal is the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs “
Site includes video
Current US population 347, 660,925. Where will he find the voters he needs for his third term?
https://www.factcheck.org/2025/05/bondi-far-overstates-the-impact-of-fentanyl-seizures-on-american-lives/
““Since you have been in office, President Trump, your DOJ agencies have seized more than 22 million fentanyl pills, 3,400 kilos of fentanyl … which saved — are you ready for this media — 258 million lives,” Bondi said.”
“The total U.S. population is about 342 million, according to the Census Bureau. So, in Bondi’s rhetoric, that would mean three-quarters of the country would have died if not for recent drug busts.
The previous day, on April 29, Bondi had posted a lower estimate on X, saying, “In President Trump’s first 100 days we’ve seized over 22 million fentanyl laced pills, saving over 119 Million lives.””
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/09/trump-claims-there-major-investigation
“On Sunday evening at Morristown Airport in New Jersey, Trump told a reporter, “The left is already under major investigation” over the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.”
“TRUMP: Well, the problem is on the left. If you look at the problem, it is on the left.”
“It’s not on the right, like some people like to say on the right; the problem we have is on the left.”
“And when you look at the agitators, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place.”
“That’s the left.”
“That’s not the right.”
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[Site includes helpful graphs]
https://www.cato.org/blog/politically-motivated-violence-rare-united-states
“Left-wing terrorists murdered 65 people, or about 2 percent of the total. Left-wing terrorists include those motivated by black nationalism, anti-police sentiment, communism, socialism, animal rights, environmentalism, anti-white ideologies, and other left-wing ideologies. Those murders that are politically motivated by unknown or other ideologies are a vanishingly small percentage, which is unsurprising because terrorists typically want attention for their causes.”
“Terrorism since 2020 paints a slightly different picture. Since January 1, 2020, terrorists have murdered 81 people in attacks on US soil that account for about 0.07 percent of all homicides during that time (estimated for 2025 so far). Right-wing terrorists account for over half of those murders, Islamists for 21 percent, left-wingers for 22 percent, and 1 percent had unknown or other motivations. There are not many politically motivated terrorist killings in the United States.”
=====================================================================
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9335287
“In this research we address this gap by comparing the use of political violence by left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremists in the United States and worldwide using two unique datasets that cover real-world examples of politically motivated, violent behaviors.“
“Of these three ideologies, most prior research has contrasted those committed to right-wing and left-wing causes. Much of this research suggests that compared to left-wing extremists, right-wing extremists may be more likely to engage in politically motivated violence. In comparison to left-wing supporters, right-wing individuals are more often characterized by closed-mindedness and dogmatism (9) and a heightened need for order, structure, and cognitive closure (5). Because such characteristics have been found to increase in-group bias and lead to greater out-group hostility (10), violence for a cause may be more likely among proponents of right-wing ideologies. In contrast, in comparison to their right-wing counterparts, left-wing individuals score higher on openness to new experiences, cognitive complexity, and tolerance of uncertainty (5). They are also less likely to support social dominance (11), which could lead to their overall lower likelihood to use violence against adversaries. In line with this reasoning, some studies have demonstrated an empathy gap between liberal and conservative individuals (12). Finally, according to various conceptualizations and operationalizations of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA; 13–15), aggressive tendencies constitute an inherent component of this construct, with people high in RWA being more hostile toward others who violate norms than those low in RWA. A recent meta-analysis supported this conclusion, revealing a positive relationship between right-wing ideology and aggressive attitudes and behaviors (16). However, the study did not focus solely on politicized contexts and included only milder forms of aggression.”
For modern politicians and much of modern advertising facts are largely irrelevant. What matters most – can a belief about something be SOLD.
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https://crooksandliars.com/2025/09/doj-removes-study-showing-domestic
Mr Edwardson,
No need to “tone down the rhetoric” to argue about which political supporters are more violent when studies specifically about that subject can be made to disappear.
“Take it from a study that had been posted to a webpage of the Department of Justice. Its first sentence states, “Militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.””
Via 404 Media:
“The study, which was conducted by the National Institute of Justice and hosted on a DOJ website was available there at least until September 12, 2025, according to an archive of the page saved by the Wayback Machine. Daniel Malmer, a PhD student studying online extremism at UNC-Chapel Hill, first noticed the paper was deleted.”
““The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs is currently reviewing its websites and materials in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance,” reads a message on the page where the study was formerly hosted. “During this review, some pages and publications will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.””
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Ah yes. “..in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance”.
After some “guidance” from Trump’s lackey chair of the FCC, Disney’s subsidiary ABC canned Jimmy Kimmel for a relatively benign statement of fact concerning events surrounding Charlie Kirk. Seems MAGAts can’t take a joke, but they can take the comedian. For now, it’s just off the air. In future, who knows where they’ll take naysayers? In Russia they have a habit of falling out of windows or ingesting something that doesn’t quite agree with them. For those that think that could never happen in the U.S., consider all the things that have happened there in the past eight months that were previously unthinkable’ even with Trump at the helm. And how each scalp he takes adds incrementally to his lust for more.
The road to complete authoritarianism is a progression, and can be so short you’re there before you know it. Especially when it’s paved by oligarchs using the worst government money can buy.
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Mr. Edwardson,
About the new FCC chair… Mr Carr.
https://www.newsweek.com/brendan-carr-trump-fcc-pick-project-2025-chapter-1987413
“So far, Carr is the second Project 2025 contributor to be named to Trump’s administration, the other being Tom Homan, who will oversee the administration’s planned mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Dozens of officials from Trump’s first administration contributed to the document.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/brendan-carr-fcc-trump-jimmy-kimmel-b2829430.html
“Moments after Donald Trump appointed him to regulate the nation’s broadcasters, Brendan Carr promised to “dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”
“In January, Trump called him a “warrior for Free Speech.””
“Carr, now the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, also wrote a chapter about the agency in Project 2025, the right-wing think-tank blueprint for Trump’s second administration. The agency, he wrote in the chapter’s first words, “should promote freedom of speech.””
“Since entering the role, Carr has embraced Trump’s campaign against broadcasters who air critical coverage of his administration, investigated major networks for their diversity policies, and paved the way for ABC to remove comedian and Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel from his long-running late-night show in an apparent act of retaliation.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/media/brendan-carr-jimmy-kimmel-fcc-first-amendment
“When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr suggested Jimmy Kimmel should be suspended and said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” ABC and its local affiliates were listening. Within a matter of hours, ABC suspended Kimmel’s show “indefinitely,” a stunning move that has raised serious First Amendment concerns.”
“Trump officials are repeatedly abusing their power to stop ideas they don’t like, deciding who can speak, write, and even joke,” the ACLU said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s actions, paired with ABC’s capitulation, represent a grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/16/fcc-brendan-carr-social-media-free-speech-00565292
“Amid a conservative firestorm over online speech, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr on Tuesday rejected the notion that the government should crack down on social media posts following conservative organizer Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”
““I think you can draw a pretty clear line, and the Supreme Court has done this for decades, that our First Amendment, our free speech tradition, protects almost all speech,” Carr told POLITICO’s Alex Burns on stage at the POLITICO AI & Tech Summit.”
No reason to imagine Disney stock will suffer…
https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/DIS/news/
“The Walt Disney Company (DIS) shares have decreased today amid a wave of controversy over the suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” ongoing legal challenges and a large wage‐theft settlement, offset only slightly by positive streaming outlooks and bullish analyst commentary.”
But it’s not as though Disney Corp ever did anything amiss…
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2025-09-18/disney-wage-theft
“The Walt Disney Co. will soon issue back pay to tens of thousands of Disneyland employees who claimed they were denied a minimum wage set by Anaheim voters.”
“The $233-million, class-action settlement approved Tuesday by Orange County Superior Court Judge William Claster was lauded by attorneys representing the employees as the largest of its kind in California history.”
““The settlement is absolutely historic,” said Randy Renick, an attorney representing the workers. “It is an incredible result after a seven-year battle that began when the workers could not persuade Disney to pay them a living wage, so they took it to the voters of Anaheim.””
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