Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah rally.

Yeah obviously you have to have training with a firearm to accurately shoot someone at range. I just mean in the “lone wolf vs vast conspiracy” dynamic, it is not as hard as people like to make it seem for a “lone wolf” with some firearms training to do this.

In some cases, a little firearms training with a decent amount of practice may be all you need.

I don't shoot guns often, but I was naturally more effective with a rifle at a long distance than I was a handgun at a short distance. Had I put in the efforts, I could probably be a pretty decent shot with a rifle, even at even long distances.
 
Last edited:
In some of my most misanthropic black and white moments I tend to think there are only three groups of people in the world: good people, bad people, and bad people trying to be good (i.e. normal humans.) I firmly see myself in the final category. There are far fewer people in the first category. but they exist - the type that struggle to eat yet will spend their entire weekend working at homeless shelters etc.

The real problem is the second category and there are few too many people in that one. This includes serial trolls. Sure they swim in a pool full of people of much greater crimes and really can't compared, but it doesn't change the fact that they share the same lack of desire to improve as human beings that the truly awful people in that group also do not possess.

At this point a troll participating in this relatively closed community that offers no platform for a wider message and few to no converts to your way of thinking, then you are here to disrupt and provoke a response. I.e. you are here to destroy - not a sign of a good person.

Again, that's taking the world view to an extremely base level, which is a low resolution vista I don't recommend.
 
Such good points you make here. My thoughts went in a broader direction. Because of the intensity and familiarity of the coverage of today’s gun violence incident no.1, we recoil and easily see the evil at play. Meanwhile the more expansive violence in Gaza - children dying of starvation- and Ukraine - a population subject to the persistent threat of bombs - has become a thing in the hazy distance, not needing our attention.

Man’s inhumanity toward man is the eternal enemy. Why can’t we face it?
In 1984, William Shawcross wrote a book, The Quality of Mercy. The book mostly dealt with the genocide and famine in Cambodia as and after Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took power.

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS died….. out of a population of 7.3 million, 1-2 million died between 1975 and 1978.

By-and-large, “the West” didn’t care.

I’m thinking back to the book’s Foreword.

Shawcross wrote, in the foreword, about the world’s reaction to a toddler trapped in a well. The toddler fell into the well and was trapped.

At the same time a MASSIVE earthquake hit somewhere in the Middle East (Turkey, IIRC). Thousands and thousands died.

In the Foreward, Shawcross wrote about the world’s reaction to the toddler in the well compared to the thousands dead because of the earthquake.

The toddler was international news for days. TV crews camped out at the site; filming constantly. The earthquake was out of the news in a day.

Shawcross’s point was that humans can process a death or a tragedy. We can’t process or fathom thousands and thousands of deaths (the earthquake). Forget about the hundreds of thousands or millions dead in Cambodia between 1975-1978.

Two murders of young people caught on video?

That’s going to resonate FOR A LONG TIME.

It is.

These two murders will hammer home to some Americans that the US is a violent hellscape. Forget the stats showing violent crime declining.
 
Let’s have a healthy dialogue today, friends.
not gonna happen both sides are the same
The fact that the shooter hit Kirk in the neck indicates to me they are a relative novice. An experienced shooter would have hit him in the head or chest. I could see a novice aiming for center mass and hitting him in the neck instead.
a trained shooter is trained to pinpoint the best kill spot all things considered. if i had to guess id say the brain area was hidden from his line of sight so he chose the neck area which is just as effeective as we saw.
 
not gonna happen both sides are the same

a trained shooter is trained to pinpoint the best kill spot all things considered. if i had to guess id say the brain area was hidden from his line of sight so he chose the neck area which is just as effeective as we saw.
you have tons of evidence on this thread that both sides are literally not the same. Why do you insist?
 
I’ve been following a lot of liberal/leftist accounts, subreddits etc over the past few months- don’t align politically but it’s been the best way to find out how to help families and children in Gaza. I have seen exactly no one celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death. Lots of people on the right seem to believe it’s happening but I just don’t see it.

It's the Sydney Sweeney syndrome. They swore we were all kinds of upset about those ads. Those ads didn't register on my give a damn scale at all. Nor was I aware of anyone who did care. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find someone, but for the most part, it's manufactured outrage.
 
Last edited:
So the thought now is that the shot was around 200 yards, which some are saying is not a hard shot to make. However, this person took that shot once, killed Kirk with law enforcement and people all around them, apparently packed up and/or disassembled their rifle, including possibly the spent cartridge, egressed from the top of the building without being seen by eyewitnesses, apparently made it to transportation and left the scene while somehow rendering all of the camera footage, personal cellphone footage and license plate readers that LEO relies on these days ineffective (so far).

This appears to have been fairly methodically planned. It doesn't appear to be a random person with minimal firearms training who bough an AR and decided to do this on a whim. This person appears to have been experienced.
 
So the thought now is that the shot was around 500 yards, which some are saying is not a hard shot to make. However, this person took that shot once, killed Kirk with law enforcement and people all around them, apparently packed up and/or disassembled their rifle, including possibly the spent cartridge, egressed from the top of the building without being seen by eyewitnesses, made it to transpiration and left the scene while somehow rendering all of the camera footage, personal cellphone footage and license plate readers that LEO relies on these days ineffective (so far).

This appears to have been fairly methodically planned. It doesn't appear to be a random person with minimal firearms training who bough an AR and decided to do this.
Where are you seeing 500 yards? Everything I’ve seen has said 200 yards or 520 feet.
 
I don’t think the “assassination” title thing is worth squabbling about and would probably agree that this was an assassination myself. But, until we find out a little more I’m just gonna say shot and killed.

I think since we’re all adults here and this is a very incendiary type event, a little longer leash is ok for people to vent a little. I have seen virtually the same reaction on any social media type conversation I have consumed today. People are angry/frightened/scared/worried/etc. so emotions are running high.
@nycfan was given power to make those types of decisions by people who trust her decision making and her opinion should stand. No offense, but a thread title on this, the tiniest of tiny corners of the internet, means absolutely nothing in the overall scheme of things.

IF someone took the time to reach out to her to bitch, it's that person who has the issue.
 
It's the Sydney Sweeney syndrome. They swore we were all kinds of upset about those ads. Those ads didn't register on my give a damn scale at all. Nor was i aware of anyone who did care. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find someone, but for the most part, it's manufactured outrage.
Evidence of the danger of social media algorithms and entertainment masquerading as news. You're fed rage bait, and you end up in a rage. Nevermind whether the content is representative or even accurate.
 
And why? This "we'll show them" attitude is a contributing factor to where we are now. If you don't "point out" their hypocrisy does that make them any less hypocritical? Is this the only example of their hypocrisy? Is this the only time where you can point out they are hypocritical shits? Is all lost if you don't point this out today on this particular issue? Are the knuckle dragging conservatives going door with a shotgun looking for registered democrats and the only way to stop this is by shaming them on the internet? It seems pretty self evident to anyone outside the MAGA bubble that these people are hate filled warmongers who contribute more to violent rhetoric than any major movement in this country's history. Shaming them now won't fix this problem. We can turn away - allow the legal process to play out - figure out this person's motives and then address the societal issues from there. That seems a lot healthier than whatever the fuck is happening on the internet.
Or perhaps we are where we are because liberals have sat by silently for 30 years while conservatives and their media have lied, provoked, and divided this country. Liberals didn’t want to sink to their level and assumed Americans were smart enough to see through the propaganda. Liberals were too late in realizing the rules of the game has changed.

Add to that imbalance the rhetoric of Donald Trump as a political leader. He poured gas on a fire that was already raging thanks to Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News. Liberals have sat silently for decades watching right wing lies become the controlling force in our political narrative. And unless I misinterpret what you are saying, you are advocating a continuation of allowing the other side to control our political narrative. When exactly is it OK to speak up?
 
That incel who took a shot at Trump was deep into right wing online fever swamps, yet also appeared to simply want fame and suicide by cop. Nothing coherent at all.

The guy who stalked Trump at the golf course was a right winger and former trumper who allegedly split with Trump bc Ukraine. He’s set to represent himself and has challenged Trump to a golf match to settle things. Coherence doesn’t sound like a strong suit.

Could be a focused and deliberative assassination. Could be what we’ve previously seen.
As a mental health professional, when you think to yourself, “who in their right mind would do such a thing?”…. there’s your answer.
 
Back
Top