XPost: alt.activism, alt.politics.conservative, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: slothe@netcom.com   
      
   OREM, Utah (AP) — Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative   
   youth organization Turning Point USA, was in critical condition at a Utah   
   hospital Wednesday after being shot at a college event, a law enforcement   
   official told The Associated Press.   
      
   Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk   
   speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent   
   emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.”   
   A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right   
   hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck.   
   Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to   
   run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen   
   Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.   
      
   “We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie,” said   
   Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.   
      
   Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political   
   organization. The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An   
   online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from   
   appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a   
   statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its   
   “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive   
   dialogue.”   
      
   Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah   
   colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”   
      
   The college said a “single shot” had been fired at Kirk and a suspect was   
   in custody.   
      
   President Donald Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected   
   officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social   
   media.   
      
   “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from   
   top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” Trump posted on Truth Social.   
      
   The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States   
   across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the   
   assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house   
   in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release   
   hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is   
   Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of   
   Trump during a campaign rally last year.   
      
   Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event,   
   said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw   
   Kirk go back.   
      
   “It seemed like it was a close shot,” Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as   
   he spoke.   
      
   He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some   
   security but not enough.   
      
   “Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just   
   don’t have these types of things.”   
      
   Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18,   
   and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college   
   campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate   
   success.   
      
   But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over   
   an influential set of conservative financiers.   
      
   Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump   
   after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal   
   aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general   
   election campaign.   
      
   Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the   
   culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son   
   were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/charlie-kirk-conservative-activist-shot-   
   546165a8151104e0938a5e085be1e8bd   
      
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