My thoughts on the assassination of Charlie Kirk

A lot is going on in the world right now, but I wanted to share some thoughts and insights that might help you.

I won’t keep saying this, but I had surgery to repair nerve damage in my right arm and hand on this past Monday and I’m just now able to begin using the fingers on my right hand. And the doctors asked me to not type much for these next few weeks.

I say that to say that I am going to use fewer words than normal, but I am going to mean each and every word. Thank you all for your prayers and support. If you aren’t a member yet, please consider joining today. I am literally only able to do this work because of you. Thank you.

My only son is a sophomore in college. And he’s fully aware of how huge Charlie Kirk is among conservatives his age. Soon after Charlie was shot, my son called me, shocked. I hadn’t heard the news, but the video of Charlie being shot in the neck and bleeding out there on the Utah State University campus was spreading everywhere.

As soon as I saw it, I told my son what most people who saw it probably thought… “I’d be shocked if he survives that wound.”

And he didn’t. I don’t think the best doctors in the world could’ve saved him from that type of catastrophic gunshot.

As of this moment, no shooter was been arrested, which is pretty shocking in and of itself, but reports are out that they found the rifle that was used, along with some ammunition, and what might be a palm print and a footprint. Police are saying they think the shooter was of college age and blended into the crowd - which I think they mean to say he’s white… because it’s Utah.

But I want to make 4-5 points that I don’t really hear being made very much - that I think might help you understand the situation better…

1. I cannot overstate how much Donald Trump and his family loved Charlie Kirk. And you need to understand every move Trump makes through that lens. They were arguably closer with Charlie than any single person in Trump’s entire administration. He was trusted by them. Charlie traveled around the world with them and was truly given open access to their world. And they all felt like Charlie played an essential role in getting Trump reelected.

   
   I say that to say that it may seem to an outsider that Trump is overreacting, but nobody inside of Trump’s feels that way. He was like family to many of them.
   

2. I don’t think any of us fully understand how much the daily images of the atrocities in Gaza have impacted how our brains process graphic violence. I saw so many people, who weren’t being callous about Charlie Kirk being killed, commenting on how they now see worse than that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
   
   And it’s true. I knew Charlie wouldn’t survive, in part, because I’ve seen that same wound on men, women, boys, and girls in Gaza a thousand times. Suddenly, seeing a famous man get shot in the neck and killed doesn’t stand out in our brains the way it should.
   

3. Millions of people all over the world are blaming Israel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before. First, a prominent conservative posted online last month that Charlie was afraid Israel would kill him if he said too much about them - which is a pretty huge deal. But secondly, the entire world now knows they will kill anyone, anywhere, so they just conclude they must be listed on the possible subject list. I have no idea who killed Charlie, but I certainly understand how people are coming to this conclusion.
   

4. Anybody that is a public speaker in the United States, particularly if you are thought of as controversial at all, has imagined this could happen to them at any given moment, and it’s clear that it’s almost impossible to stop it. Charlie was surrounded by private security. But in a country with more guns than people, it’s almost impossible to stop every scenario with a sniper shooting from 2 football fields away.
   

5. I have to run - my hand is already hurting - but I want to make one final point. People have lost so much faith in the government, as we witness governments around the world so willing to cover for Jeffery Epstein, that I don’t think people are going to believe the government when they finally arrest the shooter - unless some kind of indisputable proof exists. They could trot anyone out at this point and we have no idea if they are telling the truth or not.

Sorry I had to end kind of abruptly, but this was a big deal for me as I get back to writing. I will try to write more as soon as I can.

Please forgive any errors - I didn’t have time to proofread, but I hope these thoughts were insightful or helpful in some way.

Love and appreciate you all.

Shaun