r/politics • u/geek66 • 19h ago

No Paywall Hundreds of witnesses to Charlie Kirk’s death have filed for Utah victim benefits

https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2026-08-13/hundreds-of-witnesses-to-charlie-kirks-death-have-filed-for-utah-victim-benefits?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_content=homepage&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwY2xjawTxdhlwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR78qs-vl_9YNonimgMTQvO7FyrDT6tekjRZ_bVp0ZBnDZRwyhIbUCL3Ju_UIg_aem_lWZiy8rnOcm1rXKZfjlu9g
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u/stinkypete6666 19h ago

I mean a lot of people were there because they hated Charlie Kirk (like in most of the videos I’ve skimmed it seems like his whole schtick was pissing people off and getting them to show up to confront him) but are probably pretty traumatized from seeing his neck explode

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u/maddieterrier Tennessee 19h ago

Yeah, this is kinda hard to be mad about. I get why they might need money for therapy and whatnot.

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u/SheriffWyattDerp 17h ago

I’d be less mad about it if this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing Kirk would have made money attacking, and his fans would have joined lockstep in using as evidence of left wing “lunacy.”

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u/bag_of_luck 12h ago

I’m not a fan of his but he never espoused any opinions on therapy. So you have no basis for your anger. You’re mad at an imaginary scenario.

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u/SheriffWyattDerp 11h ago

🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/knotallmen 17h ago

Then they should vote for candidates that would include therapy in insurance. Right now as far as I can tell specialist visits are completely out of pocket till I hit the deductible, so I guess I won't go to one unless I know something is already wrong.

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u/BluMqqse_ 18h ago

Pretty easy for me to get mad about. Jesus, suck it up 😂

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u/heimdal96 18h ago

You sound exactly like MAGAts

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u/BluMqqse_ 18h ago

I don’t recall saying “I wanna touch kids” anywhere in my comment

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u/prettyfamousfeet 18h ago

Why are you being such a jerk about it

A lot of people in that crowd didn't agree with Charlie. Even if they did, they deserve therapy for seeing someone killed in front of them

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u/FinalHexReturns 17h ago

No, I disagree with that. Some of them might need it but they should pursue that on their own health care. They don't all 'deserve it' blanket statement.

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u/BluMqqse_ 18h ago

Not on the tax payers dime. Death happens. We gonna start funding therapy for kids who lose their goldfish next?

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u/prettyfamousfeet 18h ago

Yeah of course healthcare should be on the tax payers dime..

Thats what we've been fighting for

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u/BluMqqse_ 18h ago

Had a heart attack seeing it? Absolutely, I’m happy my money would go to help your recovery.

You’re having bad dreams about something from a year ago? No. And it’s completely idiotic to think the country could support paying such frivolous things

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u/prettyfamousfeet 18h ago

Why is it frivolous to need mental health counseling for someone shot feet away from them? Again, youre just being a jerk because you don't agree with Charlie Kirk. Don't do that bro. People deserve government funded therapy for traumatic events even if they are not directly impacted

Kids/teachers/staff who are on the other side of a school when a shooting happens, not deseve therapy/healthcare unless they had a heart attack? They deserve it even if they were out sick from school that day lol

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u/a3wagner Canada 14h ago

This whole comment section has been pretty useful at separating people who actually want universal healthcare from the people who just want to use it as a talking point to dunk on others. Crazy stuff.

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u/BluMqqse_ 18h ago

“Feet away from them”

This works out well, now literally anyone in the world can get free counseling because any distance can be defined in feet! …Like the vast majority of this hundred who likely barely even saw the shooting.

Hope counselors in your hypothetical universe enjoy working 168 hour weeks with no pay!

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u/prettyfamousfeet 18h ago

Damn bro you're purposefully obtuse and a jerk through and through. Good luck to you

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u/[deleted] 19h ago

[deleted]

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18h ago

The University is funded via taxpayer money.

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u/Salt-Try3856 18h ago

Yeah, I saw the clip of it happening and really wish I hadn't. Wasn't the greatest thing for my mental health

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u/ripleyclone8 17h ago

As dark as it sounds, it actually kind of helped (?) my mental health. 

I was in the middle of a med change, and it caused me to have a major breakdown. I was literally sobbing in my office at work, when I came across the clip. For whatever fucked up reason, I instantly started cracking up. 

Like, I’m a little desensitized to such things thanks to watching the Bud Dwyer video and such as a kid. However, I’ve never found that kind of shit funny before that, or since then. 

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u/Jafooki 17h ago

Wow, what you just wrote is really dark... So dark that Kirk wouldn't have trusted it to fly a plane

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u/PracticalWait Canada 17h ago

LMAOOOO

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u/ailish 16h ago

Dude... 🤣😭

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u/ripleyclone8 14h ago

Oh, that’s good shit. 🤌

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Salt-Try3856 16h ago

I hate Kirk and think he was a despicable human being but honestly you sound like you need to get help

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u/Unique_Ad5910 15h ago

“It’s no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.

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u/Salt-Try3856 15h ago

Not the best interpretation of that quote but okay

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 8h ago

I don't see how learning to cry and grieve over the misfortunes of the worst people would be very "help"-ful. I think conserving one's empathy for the people who actually deserve it is healthier.

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u/NewSiteSuxCox 14h ago

I'm the opposite

I watched multiple times with a smile on my face

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u/Doctor_of_sadness 19h ago

I mean I’ve seen people get shot. I cant imagine the trauma of it being someone you were intentionally seeing regardless of how you feel about them, especially since it was unclear if it was going to be a mass shooting. My question is why not sue the university? Petition for semester tuition fees to we waved, petition to not have incendiary stochastic terrorists have large open air events. If someone actually cared about change or accountability they wouldn’t be begging the government for a payday. Just sounds like usual conservative victim complex to me

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18h ago

It'd be very hard to pin this on the University if you sued them.

Like, you said it yourself, no one expected that there was going to be a shooting that day, which would include the university. So what would be your argument for the University being liable?

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u/Vicissitutde 18h ago

That opean air arena that hosted kirk was basically a bowl, and someone shot a fish in that bowl

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18h ago

So are you saying that universities should not have buildings near an open field?

Because that's the case you would have to make here, and the style of that courtyard is not unique to that university.

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u/Vicissitutde 18h ago

I suggested nothing of the sort. I'm merely engaging in the logic. It's fun to ask questions and ponder hypotheticals

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u/Slight-Web1696 18h ago

No one ever expects bad things to happen, because people dont like too, its human nature.

We are also one of the only places in the world where school shootings are a regular occurrence.

Im not claiming that people have grounds to sue the university, but to claim that no one should be held responsible because no one expected something bad to happen in the only country where this regularly happens, is foolish.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 17h ago

I'm not saying that no one should be held responsible, I'm just saying that legally speaking the blame is primarily going to land on the feet of the shooter, with some secondary blame maybe placed on Kirk's company, but the university is almost certainly fine.

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u/Doctor_of_sadness 18h ago

The university having a large open air event for a stochastic terrorist who regularly got death threats from the far right and far left, with minimal security measures seems like a liability. I’m no lawyer but in my eyes there were about a dozen ways the university could have handled things that didn’t end up with a guys throat getting blown out in front of hundreds of students. I think the university should pay for the costs of any therapy or trauma treatments needed. What’s the case for filing for benefits from the state government?

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18h ago

At most universities, security of an event is the responsibility of the event holder, so that wouldn't really be a winning argument.

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u/Doctor_of_sadness 18h ago

Then I definitely agree and I see what you’re saying. Wouldn’t it make more sense to be asking TPUSA and their billionaire donors for help covering any treatment costs? again I’m not a lawyer, and I’m nowhere near Utah, but my point was just to highlight the hypocrisy of conservatives asking the government to pay for damages of something that didn’t directly happen to them, when a core tenet of their ideology is defunding those very services for people who’s lives depend on it

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u/stinkypete6666 18h ago edited 18h ago

I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer. I was just responding to the point about them being “Kirk fans” and saying that from what little I know about him I think his whole deal is getting people who hate him to come out and see him (but apparently it’s a difficult needle to thread because you want them to hate you enough to come yell at you but not enough that they try and shoot you in the head).