If Charlie Kirk had been accidentally run over by a bus instead of intentionally shot,

[Ocelot II]

would he have been lauded as if he were the Second Coming and given such an over-the-top memorial service? Would a special day have been designated in his honor? I think not. There would have been an acknowledgement, of course, and expressions of condolence to his family, and an unduly laudatory obituary. But the circumstances of his death were much more important to MAGA than Kirk himself because it gave them a chance to vilify, loudly and everywhere, The Other (e.g., liberals, Democrats, trans people, anybody who doesn't love Trump), even though there's no evidence at all that the collective "they" had anything to do with the killing. If Kirk had died in some kind of accident there wouldn't have been a "them" to blame - just a negligent bus driver or a careless pedestrian. If the bus driver had been Black, trans or an immigrant, so much the better, but an actual murder serves the narrative so much better. MAGA cares much more about the means of Kirk's death and finding a scapegoat for it than they ever did about Kirk himself.

[Harker]

1. No.

He's the Horst Wessel in their narrative.

Had Wessel been struck by a bus, I wouldn't know his name. I was only vaguely aware of Kirk prior to his death.

[Johonny]

2. All this is to make sure no one signs any new gun

Laws. This is all a huge distraction from the elephant in the room. Guns

[gab13by13]

4. Worse than that,

it will be used to outlaw free speech.

[Ocelot II]

6. That's the worst of it. If you don't kiss Charlie's dead ass you'll be canceled.

And you'll be canceled for sure if you dare to actually quote dearly beloved dead Charlie.

[Ocelot II]

5. I doubt that in this case, since nobody is calling for a ban on ordinary hunting rifles.

Kirk was shot with an old .30-06 deer rifle, a weapon capable of only one shot at a time. The focus is, and should be, on military-type assault weapons like the AR-15, which have been used by many mass shooters and are capable of killing large numbers of people in a short time. Any attempt to ban common hunting guns would not only fall flat but would impede serious efforts to limit or ban assault weapons. The Kirk murder doesn't raise the same kind of gun control issues as the mass shootings in schools and other public places.

[RoseTrellis]

8. Thank you for this!

Great post on the specifics of this.
I’ve read quite a few reactions saying that this would have been prevented with common sense gun laws, and that the right has no place to argue since they oppose this.
However, this is a very rare event where the rifle used (bolt action) would never have been banned even under some of the strictest measures championed.

[Johonny]

14. Gun registration, insurance, mandatory training classes

You could call for a lot of shit to regulate your state . . . But they to worried about making it a free speech issue. It is a gun issue. Grandpa's gun with the 2000$ scope easily stolen that no one noticed. Only in America

[Ocelot II]

21. None of that would have made a bit of difference in this case.

Robinson could have easily and legally purchased his own rifle, and absolutely nobody is talking about banning hunting rifles.

[Johonny]

25. Lets try nothing and see if that works

LOL

[Ocelot II]

26. Are you in favor of banning hunting rifles?

[gab13by13]

3. Not a scapegoat a martyr.

Malcolm Nance called the Kirk murder a mini-Reichstag fire.

My Magat priest practically did a eulogy for Kirk last Sunday for his homily, proclaiming that 31 year old Kirk brought more people to God than he has ever done in 40 years.

[hatrack]

7. Well, buses (like trains and light rail) are socialist! Socialism means BAD!! Bad means SOCIALISM!!

Teh Left!! Soros urrgfghhhhhh!!!!!

[lastlib]

9. If poor dead charlie kirk had had a gun........

...he'd still be alive today....

"Good guy with a gun," right?

- - - - - (recall what gun-humpers said about Vince Foster in the 1990s...)

[lame54]

10. They'd dismantle public transportation

[sop]

13. Or fire all the unionized bus drivers and replace them with Musk's full self-driving shitware.

[Ping Tung]

12. I would have been spared any knowledge of him still.

[malaise]

15. Better example

If he was in a mall, a cinema, a school and was shot….

[miyazaki]

16. If he was shot in a theater watching the latest Godzilla movie,

Congress would declare war on Japan.

[Sneederbunk]

17. Enough with CK already. Let's move on.

[Ocelot II]

22. You didn't need to comment on this thread if you want to move on.

[Maru Kitteh]

18. I pictured him the type to go out with his pants around his ankles

in a dark hotel closet from auto-asphyxiation. It would have tracked with his lifestyle and public image choices.

[Tommy Carcetti]

19. Notice how irrelevant Rush Limbaugh has become since his death?

People don't spend much time talking about him any longer.

Basically, he is known as a radio talk radio show host who was popular from the 1990s through the mid 2000s who espoused conservative and right-wing views.

But unlike an athlete who might have broken records or put up great numbers, or an actor who had a long list of roles to his/her credit, or an artist or a singer, or even an elected politician with a legacy of actual accomplishments in office, Rush Limbaugh didn't produce much except a lot of hot air.

So as time goes on, he will be just a forgotten voice, like one of many.

People won't quote him or think of him fondly, or really think of him at all.

He was just a person who once...was. And that's about it.

Charlie Kirk would have been no different but for the manner of his death.

[yardwork]

20. Assassinations always backfire.

They never help the cause of justice.

[milestogo]

23. It would have been Biden's fault.

[Trueblue1968]

24. No. They would have said ..... It is Gods Will.

[RockRaven]

27. If Kirk had been hit by a bus, there would be a cornucopia of conspiracy theories

about who was to blame, all serving the interests of the respective speakers.

An obvious one would be DEI, assuming the bus driver was not a cis het white male.

Other obvious ones would be Mossad, the CIA/deep state, Antifa, big tech, or big pharma.

And there would still be a big funeral event, and still a martyr narrative.