Timeline: Is political violence in the US escalating?

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The murder of conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk on Wednesday has stoked fears about growing political violence in the US, with experts warning that the conditions that enable it are worsening.

An unknown assailant shot Kirk, 31, in the neck as he spoke during an event at a university in Utah. As of Thursday morning, the authorities were still searching for the killer.

Given his efforts to mobilise young voters to back Donald Trump last November, Kirk is credited with playing a critical role in the now president’s successful bid for a second term in office.

Shortly after Kirk’s killing, Trump called the murder “a dark moment for America”, before casting the blame on the “radical left”.

Republican Governor of Utah Spencer Cox also hit out at what he called “a political assassination”.

Figures from across the political spectrum also spoke out against the murder.

“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom said.

Meanwhile, Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman who was injured during a 2011 shooting in Arizona, said: “The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends.”

“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” Giffords wrote on social media.

As the nation grapples with the news of Kirk’s death, commentators have pointed to a spike in political violence in the US, expressing concerns that the trend may worsen.

Their analysis comes amid reports that judges and elected officials there face ever-increasing threats.

Writing in the New York Times in June, Robert A Pape, who leads the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, warned that the country could be “on the brink of an extremely violent era in American politics”.

“Today’s political violence is occurring across the political spectrum — and there is a corresponding rise in public support for it on both the right and the left,” he said, pointing to evidence from quarterly surveys that his institution conducts.

Amid such warnings, here is a closer look at some of the cases of political violence that the US has experienced over the past few years.

A timeline of violence

Kirk is not the first public figure to have been killed in the US this year.

In June, Democratic state politician Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in Minnesota, with state lawmaker John Hoffman and his wife also wounded.

Speaking about the shootings, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat who ran to be vice president in November’s election, called them “politically motivated”.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, both Republicans and Democrats called for calm.

There have also been several prominent acts of violence in the country this year that appear to have been motivated by US ally Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

Two Israeli embassy employees were killed in Washington in May, with the alleged killer telling police after his detention that he “did it for Gaza,” according to court documents.

The home of Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, had been targeted in an arson attack the previous month by a suspect who police say took issue with what he believed was the politician’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

Trump assassination attempts

Political violence in the US also made headlines across the world in 2024 after an assassination attempt against Trump at an open-air campaign rally in Pennsylvania on 13 June that year.

Twenty-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight rounds from an AR-15–style rifle from the roof of a nearby building, killing one audience member, firefighter Corey Comperatore, and critically injuring two others.

Trump suffered an injury to his right ear after a bullet grazed him, but was otherwise unharmed.

Two months later, Ryan Routh was detained in Florida after being spotted at Trump’s golf course with a rifle.

The former construction worker, whose trial began this week, stands accused of attempting to murder the then Republican presidential nominee.

While Routh's motivation was first suspected to be linked to his apparent support of Ukraine, further information emerged showing that he was running a scam involving promising people the chance to join Ukraine's armed forces.

Ukrainian authorities have flat-out rejected any connection to Routh, who has been denounced as committing "human trafficking" and running a "grift".

Several years earlier, a rightwing conspiracy theorist broke into the home of the Democratic politician Nancy Pelosi, who was the speaker of the House of Representatives at the time.

David DePape was sentenced last May to 30 years in prison for bludgeoning Pelosi’s husband Paul with a hammer and for planning to kidnap her.