“Where were you two months ago today when you heard Charlie had been shot?” 

That was a question asked to an audience of hundreds of UC Berkeley students in November, during the final leg of the Turning Point USA “American Comeback” tour. The conservative youth activism group was founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on Sept. 10.

Chris Vance, the president of the Bruin Republicans at UCLA, was in the dining hall hundreds of miles south. He had just transferred to UCLA from a California community college and was in Westwood early for transfer orientation.

Article continues below this ad

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Vance told SFGATE. 

Food | SF bakery finds unusual solution to neighbors complaining about its long linesLocal | Hundreds of millionaires are trying to escape the USNational Parks | I tried living the park ranger fantasy and spent most of it picking up garbageTravel | The California town that rose and died in 2 years

Get SFGATE's top stories sent to your inbox by signing up for The Daily newsletter here.

The college junior recalled how a classmate turned around to show him a video going viral online. The phone screen showed Kirk, the 31-year-old conservative media personality, sitting on a stool under a white event tent at Utah Valley University. He was debating a student, as he had done for over a decade. The event was livestreamed, and about 3,000 people were watching as Kirk spoke into a microphone, facing a crowd of young people who were lined up waiting to talk to him — his quintessential style of debate.

Don't let Google decide who you trust.

Kirk was going back and forth with a student who asked about gun violence, particularly shootings committed by trans people over the last decade compared to the number of shootings overall. Right after Kirk asked whether that number should include acts of gang violence, he was shot.

Article continues below this ad

Argentine President Javier Milei shows an image of Charlie Kirk as he presents his new book “La construcción del milagro” with a musical show at the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Oct. 6, 2025.

Guests wait in line to ask U.S. Vice President JD Vance questions during a Turning Point USA event at Akins Ford Arena at the Classic Center in Athens, Ga., on April 14, 2026. 

The moment is so fleeting on camera that you have to pause and replay several times to understand what has happened. But the disturbing video is ultimately straightforward: A loud pop is heard, Kirk reaches for his neck and he slumps over, with his blood visible. Students are heard screaming as they flee the scene. Kirk was pronounced dead that afternoon at a nearby hospital. President Donald Trump confirmed the news on Truth Social.

Vance said he was tapped to be president of the Bruin Republicans shortly after Kirk’s death. He said all he could think about was “the rhetoric about how violent the right is,” and yet, the country’s leading young conservative figure was dead.

Article continues below this ad

A generational movement 

Based on a recent poll from Yale University, young Americans have turned increasingly to the right. The poll found that while older members of Gen Z — those roughly aged between 23-29 — lean more left, college-aged adults have a more conservative, anti-government perspective on American politics. 

Kirk’s Turning Point USA fits that demographic perfectly.

Charlie Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA, speaks before former President Donald Trump’s arrival during Turning Point USA’s “Believers’ Summit” conference at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., on July 26, 2024. 

In 2012, when he was just 18, Kirk founded his nonprofit after he was encouraged by other conservatives to spread his perspective to college-aged adults like himself. Kirk did not finish his college degree, and even though he gained notoriety by having a presence on campuses, one of the main pillars of his debates was that a college education is a scam. He grew his following by sharing his often polarizing beliefs online, including a three-hour livestream hosted on Real America’s Voice, a conservative........

© SFGate