Charlie Kirk fatally shot at speaking event in Utah

President Trump just announced on Truth Social,

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. 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, age thirty-one, was a nationally known conservative organizer and founder of Turning Point USA. He was shot around 1 p.m. local time at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, during a student Q&A.

The school stated, “There was a single shot fired from the top of a nearby building about 200 yards away.” Despite earlier reports, the suspect is not in custody at this writing. According to Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Kirk’s wife and children were present at the university campus with him.

In Charlie Kirk’s honor, President Trump has ordered all American flags throughout the US to be lowered to half-mast until Sunday evening.

Who was Charlie Kirk?

Charles James Kirk was born on October 14, 1993, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His mother is a mental health counselor, while his father is an architect. As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, Kirk earned the rank of Eagle Scout. As a high school senior, he wrote an essay for Breitbart News alleging liberal bias in high school textbooks, which led to an appearance on Fox Business.

Kirk briefly attended Harper College, a community college near Chicago, but dropped out before completing a degree. At the age of eighteen, he co-founded Turning Point USA, which he described as a “grass-roots organization to rival liberal groups such as MoveOn.org.” The New York Times describes the organization as “a well-funded media operation, backed by conservative megadonors.”

He has been especially identified with Donald Trump, working for his presidential elections and hosting events at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He founded efforts to recruit and mobilize students, pastors, and church leaders for conservative causes. Last year, NBC News reported that his daily three-hour radio talk show/podcast was being downloaded between 500,000 and 750,000 times each day.

He was known for his “Prove Me Wrong” debates on college campuses, where he engaged students in discussion on issues such as gender, religion, and immigration. His TikTok online audience numbers 7.3 million. His appearance at Utah Valley University on Wednesday was the first stop of Turning Point USA’s fourteen-city American Comeback Tour, which was scheduled to make stops in Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Montana, and other states.

Kirk was an evangelical Christian. His wife, Erika, is a podcaster and businesswoman who won the Miss Arizona USA pageant competition in 2012. He was the father of a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.

“Pray for Charlie Kirk, pray for America”

Ross Douthat, a New York Times columnist and writer I deeply respect, posted simply to X: “Pray for Charlie Kirk, pray for America.”

Political violence has long been a tragic part of our nation’s story. Beginning with Abraham Lincoln in 1865, four of our presidents have been assassinated. Gov. George Wallace survived a shooting in 1972; President Gerald Ford escaped uninjured from two attempts on his life in 1975; Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 but survived.

According to Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, “America has a long history of episodic political violence,” from violence against Catholics and immigrants in the early 1800s, to abolitionist and slave fights in the 1850s, the Civil War, and civil rights conflicts in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1963 to 1968, assassins killed Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and both John F. and Robert Kennedy.

In fact, Charlie Kirk was discussing gun violence when he was shot. An audience member asked him about mass shootings in our country: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years?” Holding a microphone, Kirk responded, “Counting or not counting gang violence?”

At that moment, a loud gunshot was heard, and Kirk appeared to jolt backwards in his seat. Blood could be seen on his neck.

Doing what he loved to do

Today’s tragic news highlights the courage required for those willing to engage in public service. This includes politics, media, church leadership, and any other venue by which someone is exposed to the public. Anything someone says or does that angers someone else puts them at potential risk.

It will always be easier and safer in the moment for us to retreat from our convictions and avoid conflict however we can. While taking appropriate precautions and personal care is obviously wise, however, living in fear is not truly living. As the saying goes, “Ships are safest in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

The coward who shot Charlie Kirk modeled all that is wrong with a culture that abandons objective truth and consensual morality for a zero-sum battle that cancels and silences disagreement. Kirk, by contrast, will be remembered not only for his passionate commitment to his political and cultural beliefs but also for his sincere desire to reach out to those who disagreed with him, seeking to forge a better future for the common good.

He died doing what he loved to do—debating and advancing issues that matter to the nation he sought to serve. Now we pray for his wife and two small children, asking God’s grace and peace for them in their unspeakable loss and grief. We pray for the shooter to be apprehended before further violence is committed. We pray for those in the public eye, that they would have the courage of their convictions and the protection of civil society.

And we pray for Christians to be salt and light in a decaying and darkened culture desperate for both. “Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) has never been more dangerous, or more needed, than today.