Charlie Kirk Was Known for Proudly Stating a Variety of Controversial Views

The news that conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk died at just 31 years old in a shooting at Utah Valley University has left the political world stunned. This kind of political violence has been condemned by people across the political spectrum, even as many are now looking back at Kirk's broader legacy.

Kirk was one of the most influential young voices in conservative politics, and like many in those circles, he was also unafraid of saying things that could be controversial or even offensive. Here's what we know about his views and how open he was about them.

Kirk formed Turning Point USA, his political organization, when he was just 18 years old, to spread conservative ideology across American college campuses. He also hosted a daily podcast, and as a result of his public speaking tours and his daily podcast, we have a pretty firm sense of his general ideological bent and perspective. In general, Kirk was a right-wing ideologue, and his views generally line up with those on the far right.

Kirk extolled the virtues of the Second Amendment, and he was opposed to what he called the LGBTQ+ agenda. “I don’t agree with your lifestyle,” Kirk told a gay college student. “I don’t think you should introduce yourself just based on your sexuality because that’s not who you are," per The Daily Cardinal.

Kirk was also known for his anti-transgender views, which he was discussing when he was shot, as well as for his promotion of the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.

In furtherance of his belief that the 2020 election was stolen, Kirk organized buses to transport people to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. Although it's unclear whether he knew that there would be violence that day, he clearly believed ardently that protesters should try to disrupt the counting of electoral votes that certified Trump's loss in the election.

In addition to his election trutherism, Kirk was also skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In the aftermath of Kirk's death, some have also pointed out that Kirk fervently believed in the right to bear arms and even acknowledged that defending the Second Amendment was worth it, even if it made the country more violent. “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment," he said at a Turning Point event in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2023, per the BBC.

He was known to be a gun owner and also spoke out on behalf of the NRA in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman-Douglass High School in 2018. Like many conservative firebrands, Kirk clearly believed strongly in the right to bear arms and was unafraid of making that belief known to the public. While these quotes have been brought up in the aftermath of his death, they certainly don't justify it.