Charlie Kirk Was Answering Student’s Question About Gun Violence When He Was Fatally Shot

Kirk was reportedly responding to a question about how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters shortly before he was shot

Charlie Kirk.Credit : OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Charlie Kirk was answering a question about gun violence moments before he was shot and killed during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10
Kirk died on Wednesday at age 31
He was responding to a question about how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters shortly before he was shot, per CNN

Moments before he was shot and killed during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Charlie Kirk was answering a question about gun violence.

Kirk, a right-wing media personality who founded conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, was manning his signature “Prove Me Wrong” table on the first stop of his American Comeback Tour in Orem, Utah, when an audience member asked him about mass shootings.

“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” an audience member asked Kirk, reports CNN.

“Too many,” Kirk responded.

The audience member went on to explain that five transgender Americans have perpetrated mass shootings over the last 10 years. They then asked Kirk if he knew how many mass shooters in total America had seen in the last 10 years.

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk replied.

Video taken at the event shows that, just seconds later, the sound of a gunshot was heard as Kirk appeared to be struck in the head or neck while the crowd around him dispersed in a panic. Onlookers shouted, “Run, run, run!”

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An onlooker interviewed by CNN said he initially thought the shooting was “an act or performance” because it took place as he was speaking about gun rights.

“My first thought was it was part of an act or performance, right, because you’re just not thinking clearly,” Jeremy King, 45, told the outlet. “Because they’re interviewing and asking about gun rights with the (LGBTQ+) community.”

Kirk’s comments come as President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is reportedly weighing a new policy that would target the transgender community following the Wednesday, Aug. 27, mass shooting at a Catholic school and church in Minneapolis.

CNN and ABC News have reported that senior DOJ officials are considering limiting the right to possess firearms for transgender people, following the shooting, which took place after 23-year-old transgender woman Robin Westman opened fire at Annunciation Catholic Church, killing two children and injuring another 21 people.

Charlie Kirk.Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Despite the comments from Kirk and the reported moves by the Justice Department, transgender people are more commonly victims of violent crime than aggressors, and comprise less than 2% of the U.S. population.

A 2021 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law — which did not account for the impact of anti-trans attacks in recent years — concluded that trans people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime.

President Trump confirmed that Kirk, who was 31, had died following the shooting.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” the president shared on Truth Social on Wednesday afternoon. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”

FBI Director Kash Patel later posted on X that the “subject for the horrific shooting today” was in custody. Authorities later said a person of interest is in custody.