Law enforcement tapes off part of the Utah Valley University campus Wednesday in Orem. Tess Crowley/AP

The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk this week on a Utah college campus marks the latest example of violence tearing through American politics across centuries and the ideological spectrum.

While history tends to highlight presidential assassinations, the targeting of national figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and, more recently, state and local public servants has upended the tenor and the terms of democratic debate in a country with more guns than people.

Through the first half of 2025, the US saw some 150 politically motivated attacks, said Michael Jensen, a University of Maryland researcher who tracks terrorism inciden

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