A shooting occurred at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 27, 2025, during a back-to-school Mass attended by students and faculty. Two students were killed, and 21 other people were injured, including 18 students and three adults.
President Trump responded by reiterating his support, first stated in 2018, for arming teachers, especially those with prior military training. (Much unlike former President Obama, who openly wept on camera and begged Congress to pass meaningful gun control laws after several mass shootings that occurred during his two terms in office.)
Conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University while addressing a large crowd of mostly students on September 10, 2025. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared, “This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”
Cox stressed the importance of Kirk being killed on a college campus where he was set to debate. “Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate to shape ideas and to persuade people,” he said. “Historically, our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah have been a place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated, and that’s what he does.”
Cox said firmly, grimly, “I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.”
President Trump announced his intention to posthumously award Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people,” Trump said at a memorial event commemorating the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
While considering the victims of political violence, let us not forget Kyle Rittenhouse. In August 2020, at the tender age of 17, Rittenhouse traveled about 22 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin with a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 AR-15-style rifle, supposedly to protect businesses and serve as a medic during the civil unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse shot and killed two men who allegedly had tried to grab his gun, and he shot and wounded a third man who had threatened him with a handgun. Rittenhouse was charged with multiple criminal counts, including homicide. He pleaded self-defense and was acquitted in November 2021.
At that time an Economist/YouGov poll found three-quarters of Democrats thought Rittenhouse should be convicted, while two-thirds of Republicans thought he should be acquitted.
Tucker Carlson held an exclusive interview with Rittenhouse for Tucker Carlson Tonight immediately following his acquittal. Carlson introduced Rittenhouse as “bright, decent, sincere, dutiful, and hardworking ... exactly the kind of person you would want many more of in your country.”
Several Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) playfully sparred over which of them would hire Rittenhouse as an intern. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) called for their expulsion, tweeting: “Not only do these members fuel violence. Now they’re actively recruiting someone whose sole qualification is killing people standing up for Black lives and getting away with it.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced the Kyle H. Rittenhouse Congressional Gold Medal Act. Greene said, “Kyle Rittenhouse deserves to be remembered as a hero who defended his community, protected businesses, and acted lawfully in the face of lawlessness. I’m proud to file this legislation to award Kyle Rittenhouse a Congressional Gold Medal.” The bill had no cosponsors.
Rittenhouse and his mother met with then former president Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November 2021. Trump said Rittenhouse was “really a nice young man.”
Rittenhouse was an honored guest at numerous events held by Turning Point USA, the conservative nonprofit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. In December 2021, a month after meeting with former president Trump, Rittenhouse sat on a panel during Turning Point USA’s conservative youth conference, AmericaFest. The panel consisted of Rittenhouse, Charlie Kirk, and three others. Kirk declared Rittenhouse a “hero to millions.” The zealous crowd chanted Rittenhouse’s name and gave him a standing ovation.
Of course, there are obvious differences between Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, and Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old college dropout suspected of killing Charlie Kirk. However, they are similar inasmuch as they both were young and idealistic. Rightly or wrongly – I believe wrongly – they both believed circumstances warranted and justified the taking of a human life, or lives.
The day after the Charlie Kirk murder, President Trump spoke briefly about a nonviolent response. Soon, however, Trump reverted to his usual message of assigning blame and making threats, declaring, “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.
“We have a radical left group of lunatics out there. Just absolute lunatics,” the president declared. “And we’re going to get that problem solved.”
In other words, Trump will not be satisfied when Charlie Kirk’s killer is tried, found guilty, and sentenced – and possibly executed. Instead he wants to hold everyone on the left accountable, and punish them however he can – destroying them if possible, or at least, terrorizing them into silence and submission.
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo agreed: “It is time, within the confines of the law, to infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate all of those who are responsible for this chaos.”
Exactly what chaos are we talking about here? I began this column with the school shooting in Minneapolis. A few weeks later, there was another school shooting in Colorado. President Trump did not comment. With very few exceptions, the Republican Party supports, and is supported by, America’s gun culture.
Trump supporter Laura Loomer posted: “They sent a trained sniper to assassinate Charlie Kirk.” Who are “they”? Answer: They are anyone who is not “us.” Moreover, there is no evidence that the suspect is a trained sniper.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, stated, “The Left is the party of murder.”
Excuse me? I identify as a far-left progressive liberal, and I’m opposed to almost all types of killing. I’ve been publicly opposed to the death penalty for more than 40 years.
First and foremost, I believe in Jesus’ commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” If everyone obeyed that deceptively simple commandment, we would have peace in our local communities and throughout the entire world.
Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas have passed laws requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. The fifth commandment states: “Thou shalt not kill.” How many conservatives who pushed for the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools are opposed to America’s gun culture? How many support it?
All Americans should put aside their political, philosophical, and religious differences and recognize the sad and terrible fact that neither political party is solely and entirely responsible for political violence, or any kind of violence. Rather, the blame falls equally on everyone who supports and perpetuates our guns-and-violence culture.
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