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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Kirk’s assassination is forcing politicians to make difficult choices
about their safety
By Michael Williams, CNN
Updated:
4:00 AM EDT, Sun September 14, 2025
Source: CNN
The is forcing political figures and the people who protect them to
make agonizing choices, balancing whether the public’s access to them
is worth the risk in this dangerous national moment.
Since Kirk’s assassination, several campaigns or political groups
have already called off events out of an abundance of caution. And as
the midterm elections approach, candidates will increasingly be forced
to weigh their need to connect with constituents and potential voters
against the reality of practicing politics at a time of accelerating
threats, attempts and slayings.
“The arena they just stepped into, those threats — everything —
is on the table,” said Rob Savage, a former special agent in charge
of the US Secret Service’s Los Angeles Field Office. “Because
it’s just become that politically charged.”
Kirk’s shooting on Wednesday by a gunman at an outdoor event at Utah
Valley University — similar to the on Donald Trump last year at an
outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — will likely prompt
organizers to move their events indoors as an immediate reaction. But
security experts told CNN that threats can manifest anywhere, and
solutions aren’t as easy as simply moving inside, stationing
personnel on rooftops or deploying drones.
Caleb Gilbert, the owner of an executive protection company whose
clients have included tech moguls, A-listers and ultra-high-net-worth
families, said Kirk’s death served as a “a deeply penetrating
illustration of the frailty of at-risk individuals when a dedicated
adversary wants to do harm.”
“At the end of the day, we can have guards, guns, gates, intelligence
— we can have everything across the board stacked just right, and we
can get it right 20 locations a week for years on end — and the bad
actors only have to get it right once,” he said.
A sharp increase in threats
Recent assassinations or attempts have taken place at political
rallies, but also at , , and . And threats aren’t just confined to
major national political figures or candidates — they have also been
extended toward people who have fewer resources, including state and
local officials, school board members, judges, political influencers
and all their families.
Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, which tracks
political violence in the United States, has recorded instances of
threats and harassment against local officials this year, an increase
of 9% over last year. Similar trends are emerging for state and
federal officials as well as judges.
Matt Gorman, a former communications director for House Republicans’
campaign arm, said the threat of political violence is a “persistent
and scary reality” for lawmakers, and House members had already in
security funding following a deadly June attack on Minnesota state
lawmakers. The fear among current or potential elected officials is
“totally justified,” said Amanda Litman, the president of Run for
Something, which urges young Democrats to seek public office.
For those making threats, she said, “that fear is the point.”
In the days following Kirk’s killing, several state officials have
reported receiving bomb threats, as have historically Black colleges
and other universities across the country, as well as the Democratic
National Committee office in Washington.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Sen. Ruben
Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, both canceled events this weekend out of
an abundance of caution, their campaigns said. Ben Shapiro, a
conservative commentator, postponed a book signing scheduled to take
place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California hours
after the shooting. Young America’s Foundation, which works with
young conservatives, also canceled a Thursday event in Santa Barbara
with Shapiro.
Some of the most important work for security teams that protect
contentious public figures happens before their clients appear at
events — analyzing threats they have received, triaging their degree
of severity and investigating whether the person who made those threats
has the capacity to carry them out, or lives near the event location.
Political assassins almost always reveal signs of their intentions to
friends, families or in online communities before they carry them out.
They “tend to leak their intentions to those around them,” but
people listening “invariably think, ‘Oh, he’s just mouthing
off,’ when in fact, they’re actually being very serious about
wanting to target their adversaries,” said Joshua Sinai, a professor
of practice, intelligence and global security studies at Capitol
Technology University.
That’s why initiatives like “See something, say something” are so
critical, even though they may seem cliché. The suspect in Kirk’s
killing, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was caught after a manhunt that
stretched more than a day after his father recognized him in pictures
released by the FBI. The father contacted a family friend, who then
contacted authorities.
Using drones and spotters to find snipers
Kirk’s killing is likely to draw some of the same scrutiny about
elevated positions lying outside of secured perimeters as the
near-successful attempt on Trump in Butler. Gilbert said his company is
likely to deploy discreet counter-sniper spotters at his client’s
outdoor events. These teams are trained to scan rooftops for threats,
even if they don’t have the ability to lethally respond.
“You have the tactical advantage if you’re able to identify anybody
that is out of line for that environment,” Gilbert said. “All we
have to identify is someone who is an anomaly for that crowd, then we
can send our uniformed assets over to follow up, shake their hand and
see what’s going on.”
Gilbert said he has been using other tools, like drones, for years to
identify threats at outdoor events. But they are not a foolproof
solution and should be viewed as part of a larger plan.
“Every outdoor event is unique and requires a professional protective
advance to identify and mitigate threats,” said Kevin Dye, a retired
Secret Service supervisor and executive protection professional.
“While drones have received significant attention lately, they
require integration into a complete security plan. Even if there were
drones, it would require a comprehensive communications plan to ensure
timely notifications of any threat.”
Security teams must confront a constantly evolving array of threats
that their clients face. Protection professionals have also had to
contend for bombings, arsons, car rammings, cyberattacks and any number
of ways their clients can be harmed up close. Long-range attacks, like
the ones against Kirk and Trump, are the resurgence of a phenomenon
that had been rarely seen since a series of sniper attacks that killed
American political figures in the 1960s. Several experts said they see
parallels between that era and this one.
“The only saving grace is that it’s harder to get your hands on
explosives now,” said Scott Stewart, the vice president of protective
intelligence at TorchStone Global and former special agent with the US
State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. “But obviously the
guns are still out there, and we’re just going to continue to, I
fear, see this polarization and these sorts of politically motivated
attacks, until we do have something that causes us to pull together
again as a country.”
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