The assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University Wednesday marks one more in a list of violent attacks against prominent conservatives.
Kirk, 31, had been hosting an event with students, and was in the middle of discussing shooters who identify as transgender.
He founded Turning Point USA to bring together conservative young people, and the organization grew to become the largest conservative youth grassroots group in the country.
The shooting came less than five months after the Southern Poverty Law Center—which became famous for suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy in the 1980s—put Turning Point USA on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. In a statement today, the group said, “We condemn the shooting of Charlie Kirk and all violence in any form.”
This does not mark the first time conservatives have been targeted for violence after the SPLC criticized them.
Conservatives have faced many kinds of hostility, including 96 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and 356 attacks on Catholic churches since the leak of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, Democrats, too, have faced attacks—most recently the horrific shooting of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman.