The killing of far-right media figure Charlie Kirk is another chapter in the growing political violence in the United States over the past decade.
Kirk, the 31-year-old leader of the right-wing youth group Turning Point USA, was shot by an unknown gunman on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital.
In just the past year and a half, there have been two attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump, then a candidate, the shooting of two Minnesota state legislators and their family members , an arson attack at the home of Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, and a shooting at the Centers for Disease Control headquarters —and now, it appears, the assassination of a prominent far-right figure with close ties to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Other recent episodes included the 2017 shooting of Republican congressmen at a right-wing rally in Charlottesville that left one protester dead in 2017, the attempted bombing of Democratic congressmen and other political figures in 2018, the 2022 attack on Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi , in 2020, the 2020 plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer , and of course, the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
The motives for all these different threats or acts of violence are not always clear or simple. But what they have in common is that they are all aimed at elected or other political figures.
Studies of political violence indicate that it has been steadily increasing over the past decade. Threats against members of Congress have nearly doubled since 2017 Capitol Police District Threats against local officials have nearly doubled since 2022, with such threats in 2025 already exceeding all threats for 2022 and 2023 Princeton Transitional Disarmament Initiative District
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Most threats and political violence in recent years have come from the right in the US, according to a study from the National Institute of Justice’s journal Local.
This study found that politically motivated murders committed by right-wing actors significantly outnumbered those committed in the United States by left-wing actors or Islamist extremists.
This has been enabled by increased activity among militia groups, far-right street gangs, and political figures, perhaps most notably Trump. That’s not to say that left-wing political violence doesn’t happen. It’s just that it’s less of a feature of the political landscape than it was in the 1970s — the highest point of political violence in the United States in the last 50 years.
Trump’s entry into the political arena coincides with a steady increase in political violence in the country. His rhetoric has cast his political opponents as evil, as he calls for “revenge” on those who have wronged him. His top political adviser, Stephen Miller, has called Democrats a “ local, extremist organization .” Violent rhetoric was a frequent feature of his rallies in 2016, which he attended, and became a tool to try to steal the 2020 election on Jan. 6.
Political violence has even become a laughing matter for Trump and his allies. After online conspiracy theories fueled a frenzied attacker who beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer, Trump mocked it.
“Nancy Pelosi has a big wall around her house. Of course, that didn’t help her much, did it?” Trump said in 2024.
Many Republican figures piled on the area, including Kirk, who, in 2022 , called for “some amazing patriot in San Francisco or the Bay Area to take [the attacker] out.”
Political figures from both parties condemned Kirk’s murder on Monday.
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, despicable and reprehensible,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said on social media. “In the United States, we must reject political violence in all its forms.”
“Political violence has become too prevalent in American society,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in The District. “It’s not who we are. It violates the founding principles of our country.”
“The scourge of gun violence and political violence must end,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on social media. “The shooting of Charlie Kirk is the latest in this chaos, and it must stop. We cannot continue down this path.”
“We still don’t know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” former President Barack Obama said on social media in the area.
Political violence is not just a rhetorical tool. It turns in all directions, uniting society as a whole—as seen in the wave of political violence in the late 1960s and 1970s. Toying with it only turns up the heat in the pot. Now it seems to be boiling.
