Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 10, 2025 / 17:37 pm
Charlie Kirk — founder of the conservative campus activist organization Turning Point USA and outspoken evangelical Christian — was shot dead in an apparent assassination during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 10.
The 31-year-old was fatally shot in the neck while taking questions from audience members during a stop at the university as part of his American Comeback Tour. He is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and his 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.
The shooting occurred when Kirk was answering a student’s question about transgenderism and gun violence at about 12:10 p.m. MST, shortly after the event began. Utah Valley University was Kirk’s first tour stop.
Kirk, who often debated students on campus, strongly defended free speech at colleges and was an outspoken critic of discrimination against Christians and gender ideology. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 when he was just 18 years old to promote free speech and conservative values on college campuses.
Vice President JD Vance posted on X that Kirk’s campus events “are one of the few places with open and honest dialogue between left and right,” noting that Kirk “would answer any question and talk to everyone.”
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,” Vance said in a follow-up post.
Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump, who expressed sadness about his death in a Truth Social post and referred to Kirk as “great, and even legendary.”
“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” he wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Kirk has also been outspoken about his Christian faith on social media, in interviews, and on his previous campus tours.
In a post on X last week, Kirk expressed optimism about a “revival in the Christian church.”
“Churches are growing,” Kirk said. “Young people are flocking to faith in God. You do not want to live in a non-Christian country. Even the most hardened atheists or agnostics are blessed by the church’s influence.”
As of early Wednesday evening, the shooter has not yet been confirmed captured. The motive is not yet known.
Trump ordered all American flags in the United States to be flown at half-staff until 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, to honor Kirk’s legacy. The president said Kirk was “ a truly Great American Patriot.”
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And the internet is filled with leftist celebrants. They celebrated Andrew Breitbart’s death, they excused Laken Riley’s death, mocked the victims at the Catholic school and are still spinning Iryna Zarustka’s death.
The left is filled with demonic hate.
That is the truth.
It is the same diabolical spirit stalking inside the Bolsheviks.
And yet, instead of coming here to express condolences for the deceased you come here to spew your own toxic poison about others. Seems you are as much a part of the problem as those you are “calling out.” This is not the time or place for that. Tearing others down rather than approaching the problem from a place of Christian love is also it’s own form of demonic hate.
It’s really sad that there are two more children in this world who will grow up without ever knowing their fether. Focus on THAT.
REST IN POWER CHARLIE
“…you come here to spew your own toxic poison about others. Seems you are as much a part of the problem as those you are “calling out.”
Seems like a lot of “spewing” towards someone merely pointing out an indisputable moral reality of a bankupt prapagandistic media with a long history of support for the extermination of innocent lives, from preborn to long born.
As rational beings we cannot understand the total depravity of populist progressive he/she ideologies in the City of Man and worse we are increasingly expected to accept progressive ideologies with Catholicism.
Sadly, there is MUCH hate on the right as well. There is no place for hate at all.
Name one leftist pundit killed by an assassin’s bullet recently.
Athansius: He can’t; he excels in lying.
This is a tragedy, and it brings to mind Michael O’Brien’s latest book – ‘Letter to the Future’
A tragedy is an accident. This was clearly a premeditated, carefully planned and executed “hit”. This is EVIL.
PR – You are right – this is EVIL.
And it is also a TRAGEDY.
I hope that this crime will bring Americans together, but I fear that it will only serve to polarize us further.
I’m a conservative Catholic American, but until yesterday, I had never heard of Charlie Kirk. It sounds like he had more of an outreach to the young rather than senior citizens, and also to those who use various social media online, which I don’t other than this forum and a Catholic “conversation group”.
I am so sorry for his young wife and children, and I hope, but don’t expect this event to bring about a halt to the too-often-violent antagonism between conservatives, moderates, and liberals.
Ephesians 6: 12 says, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rules, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” and goes on to tell us to “take up the whole armor of God…”
God help us all.
We’re in a situation not unlike that described by Douglas Adams in LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING: “And each new sign signified the same thing — that the Princes of the Plains and the Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides were about to beat the hell out of each other again.”
History shows that this is what a dying republic looks like.
The governor’s comments were interesting this morning, 9/12, when he said this reminds him of the 60’s
yet we didn’t riot
This is just one of the first bubbles to form. The pot isn’t boiling yet, but it’s on the verge.
The pot doesn’t have to come to a complete boil to kill the frog.
Sadly I would opine that he who killed Charlie Kirk is already dead or he will be very soon.
What can WE do?
Have a Mass celebrated for the repose of his soul at your local Parish Church. If he is already in Paradise – the grace created by those Masses will go out to those who need it.
He was more than a Conservative activist. He was a pro life activist, a pro family activist, a pro Christian activist, a pro children activist, and more. It is interesting what we now call “Conservative” in the past, will say 40 or 50 years ago, was just plain normal.
“He was a pro life activist, a pro family activist, a pro Christian activist, a pro children activist”
Everything progressives need to label someone a hate-filled Nazi…and there is no equivalent on the fictional “right.”
Praise God, he is now right with God.
Agreed, Mike. I am well the other side of 80 and remember how the content of his advocacy was indeed normal in the seaside suburb of Sydney where I spent my childhood.
Half mast is (or should be)the new high mast.
Charlie Kirk’s death brings home the reality that despite a doctrinal impediment to salvation that only those within the Church are saved, that one outside our faith nevertheless lived that faith and died for it in defense of the precise values we claim to profess.
Charlie Kirk’s death was the martyrdom of a disciple of Christ who walked the talk. He did immense good in drawing youth away from the poisonous Left in the embrace of truth. He was hated by his killer, among a host of others because of his belief in the sacred value of human life, of sexual morality. He deserves our prayers and love. Remembrance in Mass.
Charlie Kirk was Catholic, he just didn’t know it.
That’s a great way of looking at it Mr. Mike. Thank you.
🙂
You’re right Mike. It was said by acquaintances that he was considering entering the Church. His wife is Catholic, terribly grieved. Beautiful children, beautiful life.
His murderer Tyler Robinson was said by his own family that he was filled with hate. His mug shots showed a young man with that morbid, hateful look. That his own family turned him in says to us that hate can exist where there’s good. His hate may have grown in an educational setting, where we know academia is filled with liberal hate mongers, often presented to the student in an amusing, sardonic manner.
An indication of that sardonic hate are the engravings Tyler made on the shell casings. Bella Caio, Caio, Caio. Perhaps a borrow from the Austrian film Funny Games, in which two intellectual sardonic murderers toss a bound woman off a boat into a lake with the words Caio Bella.
In Italian it means goodby beautiful. Hate is an evil that often disguises itself as a good. He presumed his hate was a good engraving the accusation fascist. This is the political form of hatred Catholics are being subject to from the Left.
To better transcribe Robinson’s casing inscription, he inverted Caio Bella, to Bella Caio, repeating Bella Caio, Bella Caio, Caio, Caio, Caio. Literally O Beauty Bye, Beauty by, by, by, by. It signifies an awareness of Charlie Kirk’s popularized beloved personality and Robinson’s hateful envy.
Actually Goodbye in Italian is spelled Ciao.
Just learned that O Bella Ciao was used by WWII Italian partisans as the title of an anti fascist hymn. That may well be Robinson’s intent.
There is no place for this kind of violence, most especially to one who was trying to promote dialogue. I am concerned about the growing polarization and violence on both sides of the political spectrum. It is not only the WOKE people who are concerning, but also the far right MAGA people. The people who stormed the Senate and tried to take over the government. The masked goons (ICE) who now represent our government-terrorizing people who are labeled and targeted as scapegoats. People are being detained without the right of representation or trial and being deported to foreign countries where they can be held indefinitely. Deportation is one thing, but this is beyond all comprehension. This is not the America that I was brought up in. This is becoming the Nazi Germany that my relatives fought against. The ones who singled out the Jews and snatched then out of homes and places of worship. Let’s wake up America and see where we are headed. The parallel is frightening. Our Executive Branch is overstepping its assigned power. Critics are being silenced, the media muzzled, judges fired, opponents threatened with imprisonment and deportation. History is being rewritten, dissenters reputations are being smutted. Donald Trump IS the rightful president of the United States and he must be respected as such. He has done and is doing many good things, and he has many good ideas; but he can and does do wrong and must be held accountable when he does. He is not above the law and must not be allowed to become above the law. He should not be allowed to take over the legislative and judicial branches of government or the federal reserve. It is NOT his position to control the sports or entertainment industries. He should not try to control the pharmaceutical or medical community. He should stay in the White House and off social media. He has found loopholes and is stretching them to the limit in his use of the executive privilege. He is moving so fast in his abuses that the courts can’t keep up with him. He wants all the attention all the time. Let’s be rational and see what is happening and where we are headed. He is our president and we must love and pray for him, but he is only a sinner as we all are.
This is not Nazi Germany, not by any stretch of the imagination. Your post, or more accurately, your screed, demonstrates the very qualities you condemn. Your progressive talking points are patently false, bigoted, and filled with hate. You are the very thing you accuse other people of being, you just don’t see it. Charlie Kirk was killed by people who think just like you.
Mr. Connor, You certainly have the right of free speech but conjuring up Nazis to describe the USA under Pres. Trump’s admin. or calling our law enforcement agents “masked goons” are the kinds of things that can trigger the unbalanced.
As Christians I think we all should be taking scripture more seriously right now. Myself included.
James1:19-20
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God…
James 1 26-27
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
My apologies, mrscracker, I had no intention to inflame the unbalanced to violence. It was my hope that I was addressing the rational. I was attempting to demonstrate the many ways that we are incrementally approaching the situation in Germany after the First World War. We have a strong, charismatic leader who is overstepping his office and silencing the opposition. I’m only trying to get rational people to objectively critique our present situation and see if this is the direction we want to take. I an NOT a liberal and am for family values. I believe in the sanctity of marriage and feel that any sexual activity outside of the marriage of a biological female to a biological male is a grave sin. I believe that parents are primarily responsible for the upbringing of their children. I believe that all men were created equal and that we must strive to love all people. I think that political extremes are dangerous and that a democratic form of government can’t survive if compromises can’t be reached. I think that politicians should be able to disagree without character assassination. I think we are rapidly approaching the point where the democratic form of government will no longer work and we will be at the mercy of strong despotic leaders for better or for worse. Those who agree with them will ride high at the expense of the others. This has been history and will perhaps will be the future. The old saying is that history repeats itself. Will democracy? Only time will tell if time doesn’t run out first. I’m not pessimistic as I know what the end will be, but I also know that much bad will come before that bright end, and I don’t envy those who will have to go through it. I hope for the salvation of all ( like Bishop Baron I’ll take flack for this) , but I don’t expect it. Jesus is the only way and He is the only judge. We are in sales, not management. I don’t identify with any party or any secular movement , I belong to Christ. My citizenship is in heaven. May God bless you all richly.
“My apologies, mrscracker, I had no intention to inflame the unbalanced to violence. It was my hope that I was addressing the rational.”
This is a fundamentally inappropriate and dishonest comment. You certainly communicated in a way that was inflammatory and deeply disrespectful, and you did that intentionally. Your assertion that what is happening here mirrors Nazi Germany is ridiculously false on its face. If you are going to post on this site, you need to do better than repeatedly cutting and pasting NPR progressive talking points here.
Thank you Mr. Connor. I didn’t assume you intended to inflame the unbalanced but these days it doesn’t seem to take very much to do that. There’s a lot of un-balancement going on. We should be careful what & how we say things. And I hear real anger in all sides. It’s not just the Left.
I believe our nation will be ok. We survived 4 years of Joe Biden & we’ll survive 3 more years of Donald Trump. I just hope we survive social media.
Mrs. C. – With your comment “I just hope we survive social media” – You have hit the nail SQUARELY on the head, for which I thank you profusely, and I flatter myself that I speak for many others.
“We have a strong, charismatic leader who is overstepping his office and silencing the opposition.”
Prove it.
Among all the fictional accounts of events you appear to accept, all of them preposterous, that affect cultural responses you’re missing one. What are the historical consequences when a vast number of citizens, addopting a false consciousness, accept fictional narratives that lead them to be receptive and supportive of a revolutionary spirit thought to be a necessary means to counter fictional injustices.
Among other falsehoods, you premise that arresting rapists, murderers, and sex traffickers amounts to “scapegoating.” How exactly?
Lying to yourself and allowing yourself to accept lies violates the Eighth Commandment too.
“What are the historical consequences when a vast number of citizens, adopting a false consciousness, accept fictional narratives that lead them to be receptive and supportive of a revolutionary spirit thought to be a necessary means to counter fictional injustices.”
The Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks is the example that came to mind when I read your post. The consequences were the death of almost 100 million people.
there have been large deportations in prior administrations
Sandwiched between two horrific trans associated atrocities is the brazen Q goose step through the sacred portals of our beloved St Peter’s basilica
Most of us who frequent this site know what sort of deranged thinking is responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk. To those people I say: Redemption is possible, if you repent. If you refuse to repent, eternity in hell will be your future.
What an opportunity has been WASTED!
One of my daily stops on the internet is ‘Lefties Losing It’. If you are not familiar with it you can pretty much infer what it is by the title.
Today – also the 24th anniversary of the attacks on New York – they had the opportunity to cast perhaps a little calm on our troubled waters, but they were not equal to the task – instead they purposely went LOOKING for lefty lunatics who were celebrating the event, and of course they weren’t hard to find – they never are. LLI – For shame!!
We are indeed a polarized nation, but that to me is largely because there are those on BOTH sides who profit from this, so they keep it going. Yesterday or today the President could have said something to comfort the nation, like President Reagan back in 1986, but that was, sadly – asking too much of him.
Let me conclude by asking of him just this one favor – lose the hats.
That’s a start.
As a Trade Tower widow, let me begin by asking how you propose to “calm the waters” with people whose aim is to kill or subjugate you? The day Charlie Kirk died I saw far too many video clips of venom dripping leftists spewing lies about who he was and how he died ( from the gunshot of an enthused supporter??? REALLY???? Based on WHAT part of reality, exactly?) From the attack on the Republican Softball team in Washington, to the two attacks on Trump, one of which came close to killing him, we move to the crass lawfare against Trump and other conservatives with bogus charges, and fake hysteria about January 6th.( Yet no comment at all about the more than 500 riots which took place in 2020 which killed many and destroyed billions of dollars of businesses) It could not be clearer that the violence and hate attacks come from the direction of the left, no matter the attempts at equivalency in the leftist media.
I do not at all suggest we respond in any way with violence. That is not the American way.
I do suggest however that attempts be made to take away the left’s broadcasting ability, funding and whatever helps fund their hate movements in the public square and helps them spread their lies . Until they are willing to STOP their hate peddling, we cannot afford to sit by and allow them to spew their poison. Some will cry this is attacking free speech. Well, free speech is NOT the same as HATE speech or LIES and that is exactly what that side peddles, not unlike the Communists. Take away their money and their press. More conservative billionaires, please step up like Elon Musk and do what all Americans would do if they could: Buy them out and shut them down.
LJ thank you for speaking the truth.
Here’s the challenge we face as Catholics: We can be confronted with lies and remain silent and (apparently) safe or, we can speak the unadulterated truth and run the risk of being killed.
I know one thing for a fact: Christ, the Incarnation of God, spoke the unblemished truth and they murdered Him for that. I know also that He rose from the dead. Moral lesson: YOU CANNOT MURDER TRUTH AND THAT MURDER BE THE FINAL WORD.
Such a tragic and heartbreaking loss. Events like this remind us how important it is to foster respectful discussions even when disagreements arise. For those interested in broader issues around safety, justice, and community awareness, resources like Indiana arrest lookup can provide helpful insights into ongoing legal and public matters. Hopefully, we can move toward more peaceful and constructive conversations in the future.
Yeah, “respectful discussions”, aka “dialogue”. That has a really remarkable track record of success, doesn’t it?
What is called “respectful discussions” or “dialogue” today is NOT what Christ did when, as we are so often reminded, “He ate with sinners.” Christ was blunt and forceful with His words, and the sinners either were converted or began plotting to kill Him. No, “respectful discussions” begin with us conceding getting along with the other guy is much more important than the topic of discussion — a gesture that is not only wrong, it is not reciprocated. This is why we have been losing for the past 60 years.
Christ does not tell us to have “respectful discussions”. He tells us to count the cost of following Him, because there are costs. He tells us that He did not come to bring peace to earth, but rather division. He tells us that in this world we will have troubles and persecution. He tells us to love our enemies, which only makes sense if we understand that WE WILL HAVE ENEMIES. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
We’re not all the Sons of God though. Christ did everything perfectly. We tend not to, especially when we’re angry.
Scripture has quite a lot to say about being cautious with our words. Respect is a good thing & from what I’ve heard, it’s something Mr. Kirk modeled. RIP.
We’re told to LOVE our enemies, which goes further than respecting them. In point of fact, respect for an enemy is a real reason to assassinate him. The US respected Yamato very much, which is why they risked letting the Japanese know that their codes had been broken to shoot down Yamato’s plane. The US respected Yamato to death, quite literally.
And let’s be quite clear: There are a great many IDEAS that do not deserve to be treated with respect. I can come up with a list, and so can you, and our lists would be very similar — we would probably find a few on each other’s lists that we simply forgot to put down. If we start out with the lie that these ideas are deserving of respect, we have already conceded too much.
Imagine a debate between Fulton J. Sheen and Charles Manson. I can’t. I can imagine the bishop reaching out to the lunatic with love, but I cannot imagine him treating Manson’s ravings with respect. The main reason, I suppose, is that some statements are so far gone it is impossible to take them seriously as actual BELIEFS. They are dishonest posing, maybe to dull the pangs of guilt, maybe to manipulate the gullible, but precisely because they are not honestly held, they cannot be refuted by honest discussion.
I think we’re about the same age, so you probably remember the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Picard has been captured by Cardassians. There are four lights on the desk, but he must say AND BELIEVE that there are five. Of course the Cardassian does not care how many lights there actually are; he just wants to break Picard and to sever his connection to reality. This is why the LGBTQEIEIO movement has so much political power; there are people who want us to say and BELIEVE that Bruce Jenner is now a woman so they can break us and sever our connection with reality. It is not an honest position; it is simply a means of manipulating people for the purpose of power.
Yamamoto was the admiral, Yamato was the battleship.
I’m sorry, I didn’t watch Star Trek so I’m not familiar with the episodes.
I’m not really a big fan of ST:TNG, but you should check out Season 6 Episodes 10 & 11, “Chain of Command” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)], because the attempt to use torture to brainwash Picard was based on real-world examples.
Thank you so much for the suggestion Outis. I’ll have to look for that. My late brother was a huge fan of Star Trek.
Charlie Kirk was an extraordinary young man, a good father and husband, with a beautiful family and his work on college campuses was incredible and tremendously important. He was a role model to many young men. He was turning around young men and women poisoned by the educational system. He created indeed a Turning Point for so many young people. Hence his enormous danger to the Left. He was countering, effectively, the poison poured on the young in college, after being poisoned in elementary and HS. He was incredible. The most effective warrior in the Culture Wars. And therefore so dangerous that obviously the darkest powers on the Left decided he must be killed. His being assassinated shows how dangerous he was to the Dark Powers. His courage was exemplary; imagine walking on a regular basis into the lion’s den of college campuses, and without the kind of protection that politicians get at mass events. What a man he was! May God keep him in His Glory.
Remember 10 years ago, when two Muslim men shot and killed 12 workers at Charlie Hebdo? There was no question that Charlie Hebdo had been deliberately insulting; it prided itself in its offensiveness. But we were told (and rightly so), that the just penalty for being an obnoxious jerk is not death. Everyone on the Left rushed to make the claim, “Je suis Charlie.”
Now, however, there is a different Charlie, and many on the Left have changed their tune. Now saying something that THEY find offensive is, we are assured, justly punished by death. “Je suis Charlie” is nowhere to be found.
Yes, brother Outis, this is spiritual warfare by proxy. Both the materialism and humanism of the evolving manifestation of Marxism and the pagan fanaticism of Islam are threats to the entire world and the future of mankind.
Both seem to be hard at work amongst the descendants of Christendom preparing for another world war. The current polarisation of the majority of the inhabitants of North America seem to be on the verge of another civil war.
I wonder if we need to return the prayer to St Michael at the end of every Mass and spread awareness of spiritual warfare and the Armour of God.
Christ never once thought that compromising the Truth in His dialogue with Satan was a viable strategy. Each time Satan wanted Jesus to ‘go along to get along’, Jesus was very clear where Truth stood.
In the end, Satan worked among his human associates and, with them, conspired to have Jesus murdered. But Satàn didn’t realize that Truth cannot be murdered and Jesus rose from the dead and continued to walk with his disciples. He then ascended to Heaven in glory to be with His Father where He is still.
He did not, though, leave his followers orphans. He sent His Holy Spirit to us so that we too might live in Truth even though it meant that we might be murdered as He was. But he told us that death would not have the final word – that we too would rise with Him on the Last Day.