General Discussion

political or otherwise. As you said, we don't know yet whether the shooting was politically-motivated, though it's not an unreasonable guess, considering how extreme and controversial Kirk was. However, people often shoot political people for reasons that aren't political: For example, John Hinckley didn't shoot Reagan because he objected to his politics but because he was a wack job who wanted to get Jodie Foster's attention by emulating Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Gabby Giffords' shooter was also motivated by a weird obsession with the Congresswoman that wasn't noticeably political. We still don't know what motivated Lee Harvey Oswald. But even if the shooter wasn't motivated by Kirk's Nazi-adjacent politics and had some other reason, shooting him was no less unacceptable. I note that Kirk has stated that some gun deaths are the price of our Second Amendment "freedom." So I have to wonder whether he thought his own ass was an acceptable price to pay. I don't think any gun deaths, political or otherwise - are an acceptable price to pay for the Second Amendment. But I will not shed a single tear for Charlie Kirk, nor will I dance on his grave.