Right-Wing Activist Charlie Kirk Shot Dead While Speaking About Trans Mass Shooters

Right-wing activist, Trump ally, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has been fatally shot, during a live campus event at Utah Valley University.

Kirk was shot just moments after being asked how many mass shootings had been committed by transgender individuals.

Part of Kirk’s ‘American Comeback Tour’, the event was underway under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans ‘The American Comeback’ and ‘Prove Me Wrong’, Kirk fielded questions from the audience.

A member of the audience asked, “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” Kirk replied, “Too many”.

Kirk was then asked, “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” Kirk responded, “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Seconds later, a single gunshot rang out, which struck him in the neck.

Video footage shows Kirk recoiling, blood visibly gushing from his neck, and the audience beginning to yell and run away.

FBI Director Kash Patel has said on social media that the suspect is in custody,

The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody. Thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with @fbi.
We will provide updates when able.

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 10, 2025

The New York Times reports that a university spokesperson said the shot had been fired from a building almost 200 metres away.

Donald Trump praises Charlie Kirk as ‘Legendary’

President Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social, calling Kirk “great, and even Legendary”.

“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” said Trump.

Who was Charlie Kirk?

Charlie Kirk, 31, co-founded Turning Point USA — a non-profit organisation advocating for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses — in 2012. He later served as executive director, and had became a known media figure for conservative talking points, and Trump-aligned youth conservatism.

Kirk’s rhetoric included overtly anti-LGBTQIA+ positions:

• He regular spoke about the “LGBTQ agenda” and in a 2024 ‘Prove Me Wrong’ on-campus talk, told a gay student, ‘“I don’t agree with your lifestyle”.

• He opposed gay marriage.

• He argued there are “only two genders” and described “transgenderism and gender ‘fluidity’” as “lies that hurt people and abuse kids.” He has also called for a nationwide ban on gender-affirming care.

Kirk also rejected and spoke out against critical race theory and climate science consensus, and promoted Christian theocratic ideals arguing for Christian leadership across politics, business, media, education, arts, family, and religion.

He was also a vocal supporter of the right to bear arms and downplayed gun violence, calling certain fatalities “an acceptable cost” of preserving Second Amendment rights.

Charlie Kirk: “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”https://t.co/uoM6TqnAgJ pic.twitter.com/mbJSa2Lzmi

— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 6, 2023