The Charlie Kirk Assassination Is A Tactical Failure Not Just A Traged

By Chukwudi Onyewuchi on September 11, 2025 at 9:45 AM EDT After the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk, one of America’s top snipers has broken down how the attack happened and revealed the mistake that gave away the shooter’s lack of real training. Sergeant Nicholas Ranstad, known for holding a record-breaking kill in Afghanistan, studied footage of the shooting and explained the weapon, setup, and key details that showed careful planning. However, he also pointed out a critical error that could help police track down who carried out the deadly attack. Sergeant Nicholas Ranstad, who once set a U.S. record with a 6,778-foot kill in Afghanistan, told the Daily Mail that Kirk’s shooting was carefully planned but not perfect.

The right-wing influencer did not deserve to die, and we shouldn’t forget the many despicable things he said and did. Mourners made a wreath for Charlie Kirk at the US Embassy in Pretoria on September 11, 2025. The murder of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk is a tragedy. But the response augurs even bigger tragedies for American politics. Even as Democrats and progressives rushed to lament the killing, the right rushed even faster to blame the left for its opposition to Donald Trump and his authoritarian movement, a movement backed to the... Kirk had every right to his views and to the way that he expressed them, even if he did not support that right for other people.

He founded the Professor Watchlist, committed to singling out academics he believed discriminated against conservative views, scholarship, and students, leading to threats against some of the instructors named. He regularly attacked the LGBTQ community, saying, “God’s perfect law…[says gay people] shall be stoned to death.” He claimed the Civil Rights Act was “a huge mistake,” and called the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “an awful person.” He mocked the 2023 political assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, and even suggested someone should bail his assailant out of jail. Kirk even attempted to link Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to the assassination of Walz’s close friend and ally, State Senator Melissa Hortman. Ironically—if that word is even possible to use in 2023—he said, “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second...

The killing of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy for all Americans, even those who disdained the charismatic clarion of young MAGA conservatives. That’s because the single bullet that assassinated the 31-year-old father of two at a Utah college campus Wednesday was also a chilling assault on free speech and democracy — the only bulwarks against a... And the risk is that America’s latest murder of a political figure will unleash unknown consequences in a nation that is angry and already confronting a fractured political era. Kirk’s final act was a public meeting like many he’d held at colleges nationwide, inspiring young conservatives who sometimes felt marginalized on often-liberal campuses and debating young progressives who showed up to challenge him. The Turning Point USA founder, who played a vital role in President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, was a controversial figure whose rhetoric had the capacity to insult many of his fellow... High-profile assassinations and attempts have rarely been one-shot affairs.

Most attackers unleash multiple rounds in quick succession – whether out of panic, determination to ensure the kill, or lack of confidence in a single bullet. For example, Lee Harvey Oswald (maybe) fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository at President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, emptied an eight-shot revolver at point-blank range, hitting RFK three times and wounding five bystanders. John Hinckley Jr.

likewise rapid-fired six shots in 1.7 seconds during his 1981 attempt on President Reagan. Even the recent Shinzo Abe assassination in 2022 involved two shotgun blasts – the homemade weapon’s first shot missed and the second proved fatal. By contrast, a one-shot, one-kill scenario like the Charlie Kirk shooting is highly atypical, with few modern precedents outside of military-style sniper attacks. A handful of historical assassinations do fit the “one shot, one kill” mold, but they are exceptions that prove the rule. Abraham Lincoln’s murder in 1865 was accomplished with a single pistol shot to the head at point-blank range (a very different tactical scenario). Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968 is a closer analogy: James Earl Ray fired one rifle round from a boarding house window, striking King’s neck/jaw from roughly 200 feet away.

That single .30-06 bullet was instantly mortal. Another example is the 2003 killing of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjić, who was fatally shot by a sniper from a distant building – a professionally executed hit. These cases show that one-shot kills do occur, but they are statistically rare in the realm of political violence. Far more often, assassins fire multiple rounds or use multiple means (guns, bombs, etc.) to ensure their target is incapacitated. Historical Analysis of Shots Fired in Political Assassinations Indeed, the norm in both historical and contemporary attacks is for attackers – especially lone-wolf extremists – to fire repeatedly until they can no longer do so (either jammed, tackled, or out of ammo).

In the chaotic 1968 RFK shooting, Sirhan kept “firing his gun in random directions” until subdued. In 1981, Hinckley’s six-shot barrage wounded not just Reagan but several others. More recently, mass-shooter style assassination attempts (e.g. the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords or the 2023 attempted attack on Argentina’s Vice President) have involved unloading entire magazines. Even the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July 2024 was a “deadly shooting” with multiple shots fired, not a single round.

In that case, the sniper-positioned gunman struck a bystander fatally and grazed Mr. Trump amid several shots before fleeing. The Charlie Kirk case – a single rifle round from ~200 yards that struck the target’s neck and nothing else – is virtually unheard of in modern U.S. political violence. Such precision and restraint (one shot, then immediate exfiltration) starkly deviate from the historical pattern of high-volume gunfire in assassination scenarios. Crucially, the one-shot kill profile is more commonly associated with trained professionals (military or paramilitary snipers, clandestine operatives, etc.) than with the typical lone extremist.

Professional assassins or snipers are taught to make the first shot count – epitomized by the marksman’s adage “one shot, one kill.” By contrast, untrained attackers or emotionally charged ideologues often lack the cool... They tend to either fire multiple shots in rapid succession or continue shooting until stopped, as seen in almost all the historical examples above. Thus, Kirk’s assassination being carried out with a single, lethal round immediately invites comparisons to sniper-style tactics and raises questions about the Kirk shooter’s background and skill. On Sept. 10, 2025, Turning Point USA co-founder and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during a Utah college speaking event. Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum, including U.S.

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and former President Joe Biden, condemned the shooting. Snopes is working on fact-checking claims that have spread online after Kirk's death. We fact-checked his last words, as well as famous quotes, like a comment he made about Jewish money ruining the U.S. Here are six claims we've fact-checked about Kirk since the shooting: The assassination of the influential conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University Wednesday afternoon has ignited alarm nationwide, joining a string of recent high-profile acts of horrific public violence that... Kirk, 31, the charismatic founder of the right-leaning youth organization Turning Point USA and a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, was delivering a speech under a campus tent in Orem, Utah, when a...

He collapsed, was rushed to a local hospital and later pronounced dead. As of Wednesday night, a manhunt remained in effect for the shooter after two prior persons of interest were briefly detained for questioning. FBI Director Kash Patel had earlier called one of those people "the subject" in the shooting, but the person was later released without charges. Kirk, who had become nearly as influential in the president's orbit as he had been with young conservatives on campus, warned earlier this year about what he called an emerging "assassination culture" on the... In April, he cited polling by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) showing that a significant percentage of self-identified liberals viewed violence against public figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk as at least... "The political left is normalizing violence — and even political assassination — as a legitimate means of achieving its goals," Kirk posted on X.

He accused Democratic leaders of remaining silent while inflammatory rhetoric escalated on social media and college campuses, where he often came to debate ideas and policies with other young people of all political stripes. Amid rising fears of reprisals, each end of the political spectrum will retreat to the safety of its own ideas, fingers outstretched in accusation of its opponents. Charlie Kirk was murdered during a university debate in Utah on Thursday at the age of 31. Tim Beor Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Donald Trump had a chance to unify the broken nation he leads during a grave address he gave after the murder of his young ally Charlie Kirk, one of the most influential political activists...

An earlier version of this story said US media reported on Thursday that bullets found in the rifle thought to be the murder weapon were engraved with antifascist and transgender ideology. It has been updated to say reports relating to transgender ideology were incorrect. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed by a single shot in a targeted attack during an outdoor event Wednesday at Utah Valley University, authorities said. Frightened students and others at Utah Valley University raced for shelter after a gunman fired a fatal shot at conservative youth activist Charlie Kirk during an outdoor speaking event at the school Wednesday. People were seen running, as screams rang out of the Sorensen Center courtyard where the youth organization Turning Point USA was holding the event. Law enforcement had cleared the area that included the white tent where Kirk was sitting when he was shot.

People attend a vigil at Timpanogos Regional Hospital for Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot and killed, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (AP Photo/Alex Goodlett) CORRECTS PHOTOGRAPHER LAST NAME FROM CROEWLEY TO CROWLEY - Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot at Utah... 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

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