Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk speaks during the Turning Point USA's Young Latino Leadership Summit at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix on April 18, 2021.

WASHINGTON – The shooting and killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk shined a spotlight on violence that has engulfed America’s political debate and led to unprecedented threats against public figures.

The shooting and wounding of President Donald Trump in 2024 demonstrated that no one is safe from a potential attack. Other plots have targeted Democrats, including a fire set at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s house while he and his family were home, a kidnapping plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and a man who broke into the home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to attack her husband with a hammer.

Lawmakers in Congress and judges nationwide face a surge in threats. Members of Congress from both parties have been shot. Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic House member was shot while meeting with constituents in Arizona in 2011. Six years later, Rep. Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, was shot during a practice for the annual congressional softball game.

“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence," Giffords said on social media in response to Kirk's shooting. Six people were killed and 13 others wounded in that attack.

Kirk shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University

Kirk, 31, was shot while speaking outdoors at Utah Valley University as part of his "The American Comeback Tour" with the organization he founded, Turning Point USA.

Kirk was speaking about gang violence when he was shot in the neck and slumped.

The event was contentious. Nearly 1,000 people had signed a petition to bar Kirk from speaking at the university due to what they called his "divisive rhetoric." Kirk was known for courting controversy, such as his recent statement that "young women who voted for Kamala Harris, they want careerism, consumerism and loneliness."

But the university affirmed its "commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue" and urged faculty and staff to keep institutional communication neutral in a statement days before the shooting.

Trump was the target of two assassination attempts

Political violence reached the highest levels of an increasingly polarized society. Trump was wounded in the ear during at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, by a gunman who fired eight shots. A spectator, Corey Comperatore, was killed. A Secret Service agent killed the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.

In the other alleged assassination attempt, a jury was seated Sept. 10 to weigh evidence against Ryan Routh, who allegedly hid at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024 with a rifle while the candidate played a round.

“No one in America, including public and political figures, should fear for their safety when entering communal spaces, attending college events, and walking our streets,” Kris Brown, president of the Brady gun-control advocacy group, said in a statement after Kirk’s shooting. “The cost of freedom in America cannot be constant bloodshed and terrorized communities.”

Governors suffer arson, kidnapping plot

A 38-year-old Harrisburg man was charged with arson in the antisemitic attack in April on Shapiro’s residence while the governor, his wife and their four children slept inside. The fire severely damaged part of the house hours after a Passover dinner.

The suspect, Cody A. Balmer, 38, was charged with attempted murder. He allegedly told investigators he was “harboring hatred” for the governor over his perceived views on the Israel-Hamas war. And that he would have attacked Shapiro with a hammer if he ran into him.

Whitmer became a target for anti-government sentiment in 2020, when more than a dozen members of a group intent on inciting civil war allegedly conspired to kidnap her.

Fourteen men were ultimately charged in association with the attempted kidnapping: Five were acquitted, while four pled guilty and five were convicted on various counts.

Gunman stalked and killed Minnesota lawmakers

A 57-year-old man from Green Isle, Minnesota, was charged with stalking and murdering state House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, and with stalking and shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in June. Both of the targeted lawmakers were Democrats.

The suspect wore body armor, carried firearms and disguised himself as a law enforcement officer when he drove to the homes of the lawmakers, authorities said.

“These were targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson in Minnesota said in a statement. “It was an attack on our state and on our democracy.

Threats surge against members of Congress, judges

While political violence ebbs and flows, a high-water mark came on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of people rioted at the U.S. Capitol on behalf of Trump. Hundreds of people battled police in what witnesses described as medieval warfare that left 140 officers injured.

U.S. Capitol Police investigated 9,474 direct threats and concerning statements against lawmakers, their relatives and staffers in 2024. The figure was just shy of the record 9,625 threats set in 2021.

Threats tend to increase during election years, but remain persistent. Officers discovered a Subaru Outback parked near the Capitol in July with a rifle, a handgun, multiple knives, axes, a halberd, a rapier sword and a bow and arrow. A 23-year-old suspect from Oregon faces several charges related to carrying unlicensed firearms and dangerous weapons.

Judges are also under siege. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts noted in December 2024 “a significant uptick in identified threats” against all levels of the judiciary. Hostile communications tripled in the last decade and the U.S. Marshals Service investigated more than 1,000 serious threats against judges in the previous five years, he said.

“Violence is unacceptable,” Republican Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz said on social media after Kirk’s shooting. “It has no place in our state, our nation, or our politics – ever. No disagreement, no matter how deep, justifies an attack like this. What happened is wrong, it is dangerous, and it cannot be tolerated.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Charlie Kirk murder the latest in political violence plaguing Trump, Congress and courts

Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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