Moments After Charlie Kirk Got Shot, Matthew Dowd Slams Him as ‘Divisive’ and Pushing Hate Speech: You Can’t Have Awful Thoughts and Not Expect to Get Shot

Tur: “Just to give you guys a sense of the gun laws in Utah, there’s constitutional carry. This is of May 2021. Individuals 21 or older can legally own a gun and carry it openly or concealed in public without a permit. Again, no permit is required or needed to buy or possess a firearm. There’s no waiting period, no state mandate — state-mandated time period for firearm purchases. Utah does not require the registration of firearms. Both open and concealed carry of loaded firearms without a permit are legal, again, for those 21 and over. So it is a very permissive state in terms of firearms. Most firearm types are allowed under state law, but again, federal laws ban certain firearms. On average, 442 people die by guns in Utah. I believe we have Matthew Dowd with us. Control room, do we have Matthew? Matthew, I’m going to bring you in on this. Talk to me about the environment. You know, we are — reports of exactly what happened are not confirmed yet, but talk to me about the environment in which a shooting like this happens.”

DOWD: “Yeah. And, again, I emphasize what you just emphasized. We don’t know any details of this, we don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration. So, we have no idea about this. But following up with what was just said, he’s been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that’s the environment we’re in in, that the people just, you can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place.”

Tur: “Matt —“

DOWD: “And that’s the unfortunate environment we’re in.”

Tur: “Turning Point USA has confirmed that he was shot. And there are a number of videos online that show the same. There’s also reports that he was there with his daughter. He’s got a young daughter. He’s got two young kids. And the — it also appears that they could potentially have a suspect in custody.”