Charlie Kirk, a right wing activist and the founder of Turning Point USA, recently got shot when giving a speech at Utah Valley University. This deplorable incident was just September 10th. He was not 31 years old at the time of his murder. Kirk is well-connected with former President Donald Trump, having recently spoken at the Republican National Convention last year. His untimely passing has understandably found his supporters and the larger political community reeling in disbelief.
The assailant, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, has been charged with Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors have said they will pursue the death penalty against Robinson, a sign of the seriousness of the crime that has shocked the nation. The increasing violence against political figures in the United States has been brought into sharp focus by the recent shooting.
In a related context, the U.S. Justice Department recently removed a study from its website that documented the rise of far-right extremism in the country. The report identified far-right extremists as responsible for 227 ideologically-motivated homicides since 1990, leading to over 520 deaths. Far-left extremists were responsible for just 42 attacks. These attacks contributed to a total of 78 deaths in the same period.
The Justice Department’s removal of the study occurred just days after Kirk’s shooting, prompting questions about the motivations behind this action. A spokesperson for the department stated that they were “reviewing its websites and materials in accordance with recent executive orders.” This decision has led to widespread condemnation from numerous experts in the field.
Heidi Beirich is executive vice-president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. She has been clear about the ramifications of this deletion. She noted that “data on acts of political violence clearly shows that it is the far right that is driving terrorism in the US, including targeting and, in certain cases, murdering law enforcement.” Beirich further emphasized that while far-left violence exists, “it is just simply not on the scale or as deadly as what is coming from far-right actors.”
The National Institute of Justice study, which was scrubbed from the Justice Department’s website, highlighted that “militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States.” The findings indicated that “the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.“
Kirk’s political murder, and those that have followed, serve as a reminder of the continued and growing threat of political violence in America. As these important investigations proceed and the national conversation about extremism shifts, the political environment is still volatile.