Charlie Kirk Shot

[Robert]

[Bootstrap]

Grieving gives space for loss, sadness, confusion, and love. It reminds us of our shared humanity before God and one another. Lament lifts that grief to God—naming our pain, pleading for mercy, and waiting for His healing. Grieving and lament are deeply biblical, but they have become a lost art in much of American Christianity.

Quick fixes and culture wars leave no room for them. If we vent, who do we vent about, and how? Do our words open space for lament, or do we sublimate our grief into enmity? What we need is not quick answers or battles, but presence, listening, and honesty before God.

Culture wars and enmity fuel the growing political violence. How can we be peacemakers in the way we approach grief?

[JohnH]

Just a few comments:

#1. This was not a "mass shooting".

#2. This was not a "school shooting".

#3. This was an assassination, performed by a professional.

#4. The assassin landed a shot from 200 yeards - no simple feat - and successfully got away. This indicates a professional assassin, possibly with additional support to get away.

Those who choose to try to make this about "school shootings", "mass shootings", or gun control simply reveal their own political agendas.,

[Bootstrap]

Charlie Kirk on how he wanted to be remembered.

Question: “How would you wanna be remembered?”

Charlie: “I wanna be remembered for courage for my faith. That that would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith in my life.”

Charlie Kirk said he wanted to be remembered for courage in his faith.

For me, courage in faith means not going along with those who want to turn grief into culture war, or to make politics our primary identity.

It means refusing to conflate Christianity with a political program, even if people tear us down for it. That kind of faith is deeply countercultural, because it keeps Christ at the center—where our faith is not a tool for enmity, but a witness to love, lament, and peace.

[Bootstrap]

Logic
Fact - he received death threats because he asked uncomfortable questions.
Fact - he was murdered.
The list of probabilities re motive is quite slim. Improbabilities too.

Anytime a man is murdered for asking uncomfortable questions it’s a dark day for the human race. May God have mercy on us.

I share your grief, and I do think we can honor Charlie Kirk’s courage and the good we saw in his efforts. At the same time, I don’t think “asking uncomfortable questions” is what made him controversial, and it wasn’t the Gospel or Christianity either. His controversy came from the way he engaged in culture wars and tied Christian faith to a particular political program.

Honoring his memory should mean naming clearly what is faith, what is politics, and what is grief—so that we do not confuse them. It means honoring what is good, and also learning from the rest.

But maybe that comes after a time of grief and lament. It's harder to do well in the heat of the moment.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

This year has caused me a lot of anxiety. Something like Charlie's death is exactly the kind of Reichstag fire that the powers and principalities need to take violent measures on people like me and my family. I pray for compassion and empathy from people who have access to the levers of power in my country, but I'm not hopeful. Commentators (including Kirk) have spent several years now demonizing the concept of empathy and encouraged dehumanization of people who are outside the demographic of the "correct" sort of American. I will never fit into that mold. My wife and children will certainly never fit into that mold. I am very anxious about the future my children will have in this country.

I also have anxiety about the church in America. I have very little hope we can weather a dramatic shift in American authority, rhetoric, and ideology any better than the church has in other, similar epochs. I feel more and more like an island and less and less like someone who is part of a larger society.

It's so sad to think about the Kirk family. I wonder if they knew something like this would happen. I can't imagine being the wife of someone who was shot right in front of you, even as he was advocating for gun rights in a country that has become more and more violent. Even if my spouse died as an example fighting for what they believed in, I don't think the honor or irony would register with me for months, if ever. Just shock and sadness at losing someone so close to me. My father died last year and I regularly have conversations with my mother about that loss. She still feels like she is drifting through life, unsure of her purpose now that her "other half" isn't around anymore. It's devastating to imagine. My heart goes out to her. I know she wasn't in the spotlight as much as Kirk, but I hope she feels the empathy of people who can speak into her life.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

#3. This was an assassination, performed by a professional.

#4. The assassin landed a shot from 200 yards - no simple feat - and successfully got away. This indicates a professional assassin, possibly with additional support to get away.

Is there additional info that hasn't reached me yet? It sounds like it was a sniper from this description. For some reason I was under the impression it was a close range attack. This means it was WAY more pre-planned than I had understood.

[Soloist]

#3. This was an assassination, performed by a professional.

#4. The assassin landed a shot from 200 yards - no simple feat - and successfully got away. This indicates a professional assassin, possibly with additional support to get away.

Is there additional info that hasn't reached me yet? It sounds like it was a sniper from this description. For some reason I was under the impression it was a close range attack. This means it was WAY more pre-planned than I had understood.

I'm sure this was planned, but 200 meters is not exactly a hard shot. Most hunters could do it with a 22 without too much difficulty. Marines train at 500 meters with the M16. I could hit a soda can at 200 meters with a 22. Beats me if I still could given my tremor. Likely done with tripod in a near by building. Preplanned egress.
Seriously, its not like they had dedicated secret service ready to go, likely it was campus security and then 911 dispatch police. The shooter would have had several minutes to leave and unless someone saw them...

[Szdfan]

Just a few comments:

#1. This was not a "mass shooting".

#2. This was not a "school shooting".

#3. This was an assassination, performed by a professional.

#4. The assassin landed a shot from 200 yeards - no simple feat - and successfully got away. This indicates a professional assassin, possibly with additional support to get away.

Those who choose to try to make this about "school shootings", "mass shootings", or gun control simply reveal their own political agendas.,

You're correct that this was a targeted assassination and not a mass shooting or a school shooting. There was a school shooting in Evergreen, CO, yesterday that left one dead and two wounded.

I do think that political violence, like yesterday's assassination, is part of the broader culture of violence in America, which is I think the easy availability of guns is a part of.

[temporal1]

#3. This was an assassination, performed by a professional.

#4. The assassin landed a shot from 200 yards - no simple feat - and successfully got away. This indicates a professional assassin, possibly with additional support to get away.

Is there additional info that hasn't reached me yet? It sounds like it was a sniper from this description. For some reason I was under the impression it was a close range attack. This means it was WAY more pre-planned than I had understood.

I'm sure this was planned, but 200 meters is not exactly a hard shot. Most hunters could do it with a 22 without too much difficulty. Marines train at 500 meters with the M16. I could hit a soda can at 200 meters with a 22. Beats me if I still could given my tremor. Likely done with tripod in a near by building. Preplanned egress.
Seriously, its not like they had dedicated secret service ready to go, likely it was campus security and then 911 dispatch police. The shooter would have had several minutes to leave and unless someone saw them...

Reports are it was from a roof, security was light, the school doesn’t check roofs. Why would they? This should be unthinkable.