Charlie Kirk's Assassination Shows the Bankrupt Ideology of "Gun Control".

Some enthusiasts for “gun control” on the left are trying to claim Charlie Kirk’s assassination shows that Kirk’s support for the Second Amendment was wrong.

The assassin appears to have used the hunting rifle pictured above. It is a variant of the extremely common Mauser 98, with a telescopic sight. It is one of the most common types of hunting rifles existing in the United States, probably in the world. It is the type of rifle the vast majority of those pushing for more limitations on the ownership and use of firearm specifically remove from their restrictive lists. Even in Australia, it is easier to obtain a permit for this type of rifle than it is for a slingshot. Hunting rifles with telescopic sights are generally easier to obtain than most types of firearms, except in the most totalitarian and restrictive countries in the world. From mediaite.com:

So the area north of Campus Drive Road where the suspect crossed over—you saw some of that in the video that we released last night—consists of a grassy area with trees on the edge of the UVU campus. Investigators discovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a dark-colored towel. The rifle was determined to be a Mauser Model 98 .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle. The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it.

The cartridge cases in the rifle show how the murderer has been indoctrinated with far-left ideology:

Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found with the rifle. Inscriptions on a fired casing read: “notices bulges” capital “O-W-O what’s this?” Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read: “hey fascist!” “catch!” Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols. A second unfired casing read: “Oh Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao.” And a third unfired case read: “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.”

According to wikipedia, “Bella Ciao” is an anti-fascist folk song. Unfortunately, the accused killer did not have enough self reflection to understand that killing your opponent because you cannot beat him in open debate is a very fascist thing to do.

Newsweek.com quoted an influencer who claimed Charlie Kirk lost the gun control debate. From newsweek.com:

On X Brandy Bryant, a self-styled transgender comedian with 21,000 followers on the platform, posted: “Breaking: Charlie Kirk loses gun debate.”

Brandy Bryant is exactly wrong. When you have to kill someone to silence them, it shows you have lost the debate. The left is driven to violence because they have lost the debate. On reddit, Mormaglis wrote this:

 While there might not be a perfectly secure system, there are obviously systems that greatly reduce the accessibility of firearms for those who would use them to harm others. You might not be able to say for certain that it wouldn’t have prevented the assassination – but you can reasonably say that it would reduce the likelihood of an assassination occurring.

There are systems which might be secure enough to do this. They are called totalitarian systems. The bolt action hunting rifle is the type of firearm least subject to control. People who hunt and have no prior history of violence, such as the assassin, are most likely to be able to access this type of firearm.  The argument is common among people who want the population disarmed.  They refuse to acknowledge the benefits of widespread ownership of firearms. From reddit contributor 7097556El3-93, writing about British gun control:

But realistically, hardly anyone wants to actually kill politicians, and only 1% of those have the means to do so at long range with a gun. So the percentage of people with both the means and the motive is vanishingly small. This is one of the positive impacts of strict gun control. Another is that if anyone sees anybody else with a gun then there is an immediate and fair assumption that they are a dangerous threat, which makes it even harder to execute an assassination.

The writer ignores the fact that Charlie Kirk was not a politician. He was a political thinker, writer, organizer, and debater.  He was killed for his political speech. As previously noted, the type of firearm used is exactly one of the easiest for a person to obtain in strict gun control regimes such as England, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. They are very hard to obtain in totalitarian regimes such as China, North Korea, Venezuela, or Cuba. The politicians there have made a lot of enemies. Those who want to kill a politician have some of the strongest motivations to obtain a means to do so. The writer does not mention violent crime has increased in England with the imposition of gun control. The writer does not mention people in England have lost the right to free speech and England is becoming more and more authoritarian.

If you use a gun to assassinate someone who is opposed to gun control, it does not mean they were wrong to oppose gun control. It means the person opposed to them lost the argument and resorted to force. Charlie Kirk was a strong proponent of free speech, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and limited government. He was a Christian.  He was effective. It is why the left demonized him.  It is why he was killed. He was winning the argument.

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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