Charlie Kirk Assassination Stirs Fears of Rising Political
Violence
Political scholars and ordinary people believe that the
slaying of the 31-year-old political commentator is a possible
watershed moment for the nation.
By Janice Hisle, Savannah Hulsey Pointer
September 12, 2025
**The Sept. 10 death of Charlie Kirk—the highest-profile U.S.
political figure to be assassinated in nearly six decades—represents
a tipping point for the nation, legal scholars and others told The
Epoch Times. How leaders and the populace react to it could deter-
mine whether the tide of political violence continues to rise or
recedes.
The 31-year-old father of two was fatally shot in the neck as
he spoke on a Utah college campus. As of Sept. 11, the gunman re-
mained unidentified and on the loose; police detained two people
but released both after questioning.
Susan MacManus, a Florida political scholar for a half-century,
said Kirk’s slaying could spark important changes.
“But is it going to be a catalyst for the two parties coming
together and saying, ‘Enough of this’?” she asked. “Or is it just
going to be a catalyst for even further deepening the polarization
in this country?”
She said she worries that it could be the latter, given that
“right now, the two words that are most missing in our politics are
‘civility’ and ‘compromise.’”
MacManus told The Epoch Times that she sees another contributing
factor: Americans are awash in a culture of violence, ranging from
images in movies and news reports to video games “where you win if
you ‘kill’ people.”
When Kirk was gunned down, he was answering an attendee’s
question about transgender suspects committing mass shootings. Any
possible significance of that timing remains unknown, along with
the gunman’s motive. In addition, Kirk had posted on social media
earlier in 2025 that he was concerned about studies showing the
glorification of “assassination culture” in the United States.
Many people, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, have labeled Kirk’s
death a “political assassination.”
The founder of the Turning Point USA conservative organization,
Kirk influenced millions of people, President Donald Trump said in
an address hours after the shooting. Trump called for an end to
political violence and vowed that his administration would root out
“each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and
to other political violence.”
As a candidate in 2024, Trump himself was the target of
attempted assassinations in Pennsylvania and Florida.
High-profile mass shootings at schools and the targeted assas-
sination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson have also rattled
the American psyche and affected political discourse.
This year, an arsonist targeted the Democratic Pennsylvania
governor’s residence in April. And in June, a gunman shot two
Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses.
The Aug. 22 fatal stabbing of a young Ukrainian woman aboard
a Charlotte, North Carolina, train, captured on video, seems to
have touched off the most outrage, according to MacManus.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks alongside
photos of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska and Decarlos Brown Jr.
during a news briefing at the White House on Sept. 9, 2025.
Zarutska was allegedly killed by Brown on a light-rail train in
Charlotte, N.C. Many other violent incidents have affected U.S.
politics, directly or indirectly, in recent years.
Asked to put Kirk’s assassination into context, Jeff Blood-
worth, professor of American political history at Pennsylvania’s
Gannon University, told The Epoch Times that the nation has had
“many, many moments of political violence,” far more than its
“Western cousin. He called Kirk’s slaying “another sad chapter
in a ‘book’ that nobody wants to read.”
Looking at the current situation, he said, “It’s telling when
you have to say, ‘Well, it’s not as bad as 1968, right?’”
That was the year presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
(D-N.Y.) and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. were both
assassinated. Those slayings followed the 1963 assassination of
President John F. Kennedy (Sen. Robert Kennedy’s brother), a
Democrat.
In the decades since, violence against other notable national
figures has included the 2017 shooting of House Majority Whip Steve
Scalise, a Republican, who survived despite serious injuries; the
1981 non-fatal shooting of President Ronald Reagan, a Republican;
and a 2011 attack on Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) that left six
people dead, 13 injured, and Giffords in critical condition.
Bloodworth and MacManus said many people who are only casually
aware of politics had no idea who Kirk was until he was assassi-
nated. But they also agreed that the big impact he had on U.S.
politics is part of his legacy.
“He was an important figure,“ Bloodworth said. ”You might even
say he was a rock star in certain circles.”
Both political scholars said they were concerned about how the
Kirk assassination could affect U.S. politics.
MacManus said many would-be candidates for the 2026 midterm
elections might not be willing to risk becoming targets for violence
President John F. Kennedy (3rd R) in the White House with leaders
of the “March on Washington” (L–R) Floyd McKissick, Mathew Ahmann,
Whitney Young, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Rabbi Joachim
Prinz, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, and Roy Wilkins.
MPI/Getty Images
Bloodworth said the political violence seems to be a symptom
of deeper maladies in American society.
“Our politics is a barometer, and this violence is a barometer,
and it’s telling us something,” he said. “I don’t think it’s telling
us just how politically divided we are. I think it tells us some-
thing about kind of a deeper yearning.”
People feel “more disconnected” and sad, despite so many ways
to “connect” online, he said, noting that social media is not “real
life.”
Both he and MacManus said the human tragedy of Kirk’s death,
which left his wife a widow and his two small children fatherless,
should bridge any political divide if people step back and see it
from that perspective.
MacManus said the U.S. people are looking to the nation’s
leaders to set the tone.
“[People need to] see Congress coming together and big leaders
from both parties saying, ‘Here are things we’re going to do and
we’re not going to do,’ and stick to it,” she said. “But the
problem we were running into is the old problem of ‘do as I say,
not as I do.’”
On Campus
Those in attendance also raised concerns about how Kirk’s
assassination will affect them and society.
Jeremy King, 45, and his wife, Amy King, 46, live near the site
where Kirk was speaking, so they decided to attend, they told The
Epoch Times.
Jeremy King told The Epoch Times that he heard “what sounded
like a firecracker.” He was not sure that the shooting was real
until he saw Kirk fall back in his chair, he said.
The attendee said he distinctly remembers standing over his
wife, trying to understand if this was a mass shooting event and if
they should take cover or run. They decided to leave when Jeremy
King said he realized that Kirk was being targeted and there were
no additional shots coming.
“So we left [in] the same direction Charlie was taken out,”
Jeremy King said. As he left, he pulled out his phone to take a
video because he was convinced that the moment needed to be
recorded.
“It felt very significant when they were carrying him out,”
he said.
Jeremy King took some of the most widely spread video footage
of Kirk’s security team rushing him into an SUV. Kirk then was
taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead Charlie Kirk is
carried away after being shot during a Turning Point USA event at
Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, 2025. Courtesy
of Jeremy King
The couple has very different opinions about whether they will
attend an event like this in the future.
Amy King said it was her first political event and might be
her last.
She said she does not “really get into politics” but went
because the event was close to home and she “was really interested
in some of the things that [Kirk] said.”
Jeremy King said he came away from the event with a different
opinion; he now feels that he wants to be “very involved” moving
forward.
He said he would “absolutely go” to future political events.
“I think we need to do a better job of screening and [with]
the security, but there’s been so many wonderful things that we
can’t do anymore that we did in the ‘80s and ’90s and early 2000s
and, unfortunately, I think that trend will continue,” he said.
Amy King’s voice faltered when she talked about what it will
be like for Kirk’s children to grow up without him.
“Us being parents ourselves, knowing Charlie was a parent ..
.my heart goes out to his family,” she told The Epoch Times.
She also addressed the “shock” that the conservative commen-
tator’s kids will go through, even when they are older, when they
see references to or footage of the event.
“This will be on the news or at any time as they get older,
and to grow up to see your dad pretty much gunned down on live TV,
it’s just not fair,” she said.
Amy King said she sees, now more than ever, the importance of
respecting “every individual.”
“If you disagree, you disagree,” she said. “But violence is
not ever the solution.”**
And we still don't have any information of whom this murderer
is and his reasoning.**
"Rest in Peace" Charlie. Ask God to Deliver us from the Evil
that the set itself upon destroying our Great Nation.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 