by Ol'ga Kuznetsova
[REGNUM] Until September 10, many people had not thought about what it was like to bleed to death after a bullet wound to the neck. Some did not even know that a person has two carotid arteries - left and right.
Some doctors even argued: is it really possible to take the victim to the hospital in such a situation? And if it is possible - not only to take him, but also to save him - won't the person remain disabled?
The death of one of the most popular political influencers in the United States, Charlie Kirk, has given rise to such anatomical thoughts in a very predictable way.
Exactly the same thing was discussed after the assassination of the 35th US President John Kennedy. In 1963, many journalists wrote that his wife Jackie's pink suit was not only covered in blood, but also smeared with pieces of brain.
It sounds somewhat disgusting, but when a murder of this kind occurs - and in a country like the United States - it tears the information field into before and after, endows the murdered with an aura of being chosen, and national history gets a new chapter, followed by a locomotive of new urban myths, gossip and a new chapter of the "political Gospel".
The latter will have everything from frightening naturalism to the prediction of an upcoming war with aliens.
SYNOPSIS OF THE LEGEND
Charlie Kirk was shot during a public event on the campus of Utah Valley University. The incident caused panic, with numerous students and guests of the event running away and police rushing to cordon off the campus.
At the same time, the first suspect was captured - an elderly man, Michael Mallinson, a member of the Utah branch of the Democratic Party. However, after the first interrogation, he was released.
Several more people were subsequently detained, but all turned out to be innocent.
Along the way, and somehow by the way, it turned out that at the event, in which Charlie Kirk, who had repeatedly received threats, participated, sufficient security measures were not taken: entrance tickets were not checked, there was practically no security, no one checked bags, no one went through metal detectors.
| No one scouted out rooftop perches and made sure they could not be accessed. Apparently they took no precautions whatsoever. |
At the same time, new photos of a potential suspect, who was finally captured by surveillance cameras, surfaced. He turned out to be a fairly young and thin man in sunglasses and a baseball cap, dressed in a dark sweatshirt.
Speculation immediately spread that the perpetrator was a professional shooter and was aiming at the victim either from the roof of one of the campuses or from another point approximately two hundred meters from the target.
True, there were those who doubted the professionalism of the sniper, given that Kirk was shot in the neck. According to some people, professionals aim for the head or the heart.
NEW ICONIC IMAGE
When you read Charlie Kirk's biography, you are somewhat perplexed as to why he didn't have not just regular guards, but a whole legion of them.
By the age of 31, Kirk had achieved considerable heights - and this despite the lack of the "right" background, the "right" degree, and the "right" connections at the beginning of his career.
He became involved in politics while still in high school, and later continued to oversee youth projects for the Republican Party and spread conservative ideas among young Americans.
It worked out great. Especially on social media — over 7 million followers on Instagram*, about 4 million on YouTube, over 5 million on Facebook*, and over 6 million on TikTok.
Kirk hosted podcasts, wrote books, debated, coordinated religious fellowships in schools and colleges, and talked, talked, talked. Mostly with young people, both left and right, constantly challenging the latter to public debates.
It is not surprising that he had many enemies.
Just look at the scandal that ensued after he asked a transgender person** in the face: “Who is a woman? ”
| A fair question, for those claiming to have crossed categories. |
And Kirk looks like he came straight out of a Conservative Party brochure. Traditionally attractive, white, with a beautiful young blonde wife and two children, a boy and a girl.
In fact, he was a living symbol of the MAGA movement, a synonym for it. And the murder of the Republican Party's "living mascot" among young people is quite rightly called a "personal insult" to the White House.
"THE NEW GEORGE FLOYD"
One of Kirk's last speeches on social media was dedicated to the murder of Irina Zarutskaya, a refugee from Ukraine who was stabbed to death several days ago in North Carolina by a black migrant of unknown origin.
Irina did not enter into any conflict, she was simply the only white person in the carriage and sat with her nose buried in her phone, not paying attention to the situation around her. The killer attacked from behind and stabbed her in the neck.
Kirk and other Republican activists immediately condemned the crime and began to mold Zarutskaya into a “new George Floyd.” Representatives of the scandalous BLM movement immediately responded to this, stating that such an aggressive reaction gave all members of the movement the right to violence.
After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the top leadership and leading public figures of the Democratic Party saved face. They expressed condolences and condemned all forms of political violence.
However, in the liberal media the situation was different.
The anchors allowed themselves to smile while talking about the murder, articles called Charlie Kirk a "controversial figure," and some even claimed that he had simply been accidentally shot by one of his overly cheerful Republican fans.
Even during the moment of silence in Congress, individual Democrats shouted out objections. And on social media, a portal to hell opened up: representatives of various leftist movements expressed joy at the murder and collected likes.
Already at this stage, Republican activists launched a counterattack. They declared that they would continue their public activities and that conservatives were being killed "for believing in Jesus Christ."
Social media has seen descriptions such as “The Democratic Party is the party of murderers,” and Kirk himself has been called “the new George Floyd.”
And when one of the media outlets reported that the killer's cartridges allegedly featured slogans of representatives of the trans community*, the visor of some Republicans fell completely.
"LEFTIST WITH A RIFLE"
A bullet in the neck, a knife in the neck… Too many fatal blows to the neck in the last few days in the public space. And not only in the American one. Both murders have stirred public opinion in Russia as well.
On September 11, when publications about Kirk's murder were spreading across Russian social networks, Orthodox Christians were celebrating the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist. Some authors from the Russian-language segment of social networks added this reference to the nascent myth about Charlie Kirk. Although in the US this day is celebrated at the end of August, and Americans did not even have such associations.
| Nope. I wasn’t aware it was on the Christian calendar. |
Perhaps the killer was trying to say something? To take revenge? To threaten? And to hint that the very existence of the ideology promoted by Trump’s structures is under threat?
Yes, that's pretty much how it looks. However, it is in the interests of the same Trump to write it all off as the mental instability of another "leftist with a rifle." As the crime chronicle shows, no one in the US is surprised by such criminals anymore.
And the true motives of what happened will be sorted out behind the scenes, so that no one's important head will fall. And Kirk... Well, that's the job of a symbol - to become a victim of someone else's interests at the right moment.
And no, this story will not break America's long-suffering backbone. But a cut has already appeared on the neck.
Related:
Charlie Kirk 09/12/2025 Charlie Kirk Assassin in custody
Charlie Kirk 09/12/2025 Two more alarming Secret Service failures
Charlie Kirk 09/12/2025 Day 3: Person of interest in Charlie Kirk assassination pictured in photos released by FBI UPDATE: ARRESTED
Charlie Kirk 09/12/2025 Charlie Kirk Assassin in custody
Charlie Kirk 09/12/2025 Two more alarming Secret Service failures
Charlie Kirk 09/12/2025 Day 3: Person of interest in Charlie Kirk assassination pictured in photos released by FBI UPDATE: ARRESTED