Rant #3,781: What's Goin' On

As we look back at 9/11, we have another horrific incident to discuss.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 31, who visits college campuses speaking to members of the college community about his MAGA views, was fatally shot while addressing a crowd at Utah Valley University.

Police had a suspect in custody, supposedly an elderly man, and not a student. He has since been released. 

Later yesterday evening, police said they had "a person of interest" in custody.

Whoever it was made the shooting from a site 200 yards away.

Kirk was supposedly hit hard in his neck or upper chest, and he was rushed to the hospital.

The campus was immediately closed, and classes were canceled. The campus and surrounding area was put on lockdown yesterday afternoon.

The availability of guns is a story we have spoken about many times here, and I am not going to repeat that again.

What I am going to talk about is the angry mood in this country that would enable someone to justify shooting a gun off at someone, perhaps for their differing political views.

Kirk is not a politician; he is an influencer, and he draws large crowds on college campuses when he speaks.

He has a sharp tongue, a ready wit, and he is cool, calm and collected even when he and his views are attacked.

I guess in this sick world, he was an open target. He is not a politician, just someone who publicly speaks his mind ... to about 100 million people online.

I have seen some of his videos of his appearances on college campuses, and I have to say, he has a really quick answer to everything, and it is clear that his views make him a hero to some, and a pariah to others.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have come out in support of Kirk--who was narried and had two young kids--and are deeply disturbed at this act of political violence.

I hate to be so matter of fact about this, but politicians do get shot, but Kirk is not one.

So in this sick environment we live in, somebody who has gained whatever fame and notoriety he has from the Internet is as open to such violence as a president of our country is.

We, as a society, are so angry about so many things that rather than simply speaking our mind on the topics that we are angry about, we take out guns and shoot people based on their views.

Sickness, total sickness.

This incident was recorded on cell phone cameras, and there were as many people at the rally who were fans of Kirk as there were people who hated him.

Lots of people regularly sign petitions to keep him and his views off college campuses.

Thst is one of the proper ways to handle this. One has every right to disagree with people.

However, one has no right to shoot those who they disagree with.

Have we, as a society, lost our collective minds when we happen to disagree with other human beings?

This is not the first, and certainly won't be the last, such incident, and it reflects on our society and where we are in 2025.

And where we are is ...

Sick, sick, sick.