Charlie Kirk's Assassin

Don't jump to conclusions like the New York Times in 2011.

As of early Friday morning, Charlie Kirk’s assassin is still on the run. From long distance video, he appears to have been young, slender, more or less white, and of the male sex.

As for gender … well, we’ll see. The Wall Street Journal reported:

An early bulletin circulated widely among law enforcement officials said investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of "transgender and anti-fascist ideology" inside the rifle that authorities believe was used in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. But some officials later Thursday cautioned against reaching conclusions based on the internal report.

The bulletin said an older-model .30 caliber hunting rifle was discovered in the woods near the scene of Wednesday’s shooting at Utah Valley University, wrapped in a towel with a spent cartridge still in the chamber. There were also three unspent rounds in the magazine, all with wording on them, it said.

It’s important not to rush to a conclusion and make fools of ourselves, the way so many New York Times writers, such as Paul Krugman, did in January 2011 when a young white man shot Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) in the head. She survived, but a judge who was appearing with her died.

The mainstream media immediately jumped to the conclusion that the shooter was motivated by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Arizona’s Republican governor’s attempts to crack down on illegal immigration, anti-Semitism, and whatever else they were against.

But the shooter quickly turned out to be a complete lunatic who had some crazy personal grudge against Rep. Giffords.

If you are the New York Times, you can get away with memoryholing your embarrassing behavior.

At present, the assassins’ motive remains unknown. We’ll see soon enough.

But that got me thinking on the more general topic of why everybody has contradictory opinions on whether there is more rightwing or leftwing violence.

One obvious reason is that

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