Yesterday morning we learned from an ATF leak to Steven Crowder that the bullet casings found with the rifle used to kill Charlie Kirk had been engraved with messages. The initial report said the ammo was “engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology.” This obviously put a pretty clear spin on who the shooter would turn out to be.
But later in the day the NY Times published a warning from an unnamed law enforcement source (see here) which seemed to walk back the reliability of the initial report.
A senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation cautioned that the report had not been verified by A.T.F. analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted.
As I said at the time this wasn’t an outright denial the casings had been engraved just a note of caution about their interpretation. CNN then reported that a series of arrows on one of the casings had been initially interpreted as connecting to trans ideology but that hadn’t been verified.
Two law enforcement sources told CNN that agents quickly ran an initial search on one of the markings, including a series of arrows, which analysts initially interpreted to be a connection to the transgender community. That information remains unverified and is still being investigated.
What that set off on X was a claim that there were no engravings on the casings at all and that the ATF had made a dumb mistake by misinterpreting manufacturer’s marks as engravings. This is from a left-wing account with 250,000 followers.
After a few followers mentioned they thought this might be referring to manufacturing stamps I had a quick look.
Many manufacturers stamp with arrows, ironsights or initials including TRN.
This seems like something that anyone in law enforcement should know if they aren’t a… https://t.co/zgMQ63KbHD pic.twitter.com/lx6GFovOjj
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) September 11, 2025
Given they can’t produce alternative explanations or evidence, walled back the claim, and stamps on ammo align with the symbols reported, I can only conclude yes.
I’m open to them explaining otherwise or showing actual etchings on the ammo, but… this is consistent.
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) September 12, 2025
The part of this that really took off was the claim that the letters “TRN,” a symbol for a Turkish ammo manufacturer, had been misinterpreted as a reference to “trans.”
PSA: “TRN” on the casing is a headstamp for Turan Ammunition, a manufacturer. It’s not a hidden “trans” code.
Watching people turn a factory mark into a culture-war conspiracy is the whole problem in one frame.
Evidence over vibes. pic.twitter.com/bMQMJcQ7C1
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) September 12, 2025
There are a few people still confidently repeating this today as if the image with the TRN stamp was a photo of the actual casing. (To be clear, it’s not.)
Turan Ammo, which uses the stamp TRN, is a Turkish manufacturer which makes ammunition for pistols and rifles that are commonly exported to the United States and other countries. When this unfired round was found near where the Kirk assassin was, the rightwing media claimed that… pic.twitter.com/aYqDRPl0UL
— Stephen Zunes (@SZunes) September 12, 2025
Also, that particular manufacturer apparently doesn’t make ammo for the rifle in question.
TRN wouldn’t be stamped on those casing by the manufacturer because they don’t make them, lol pic.twitter.com/sWPju1CpOR
— Wilhelm Von Helmsley (@WilhelmVonH) September 12, 2025
So what really happened here? Well, there were four casings with engravings on them, all found with the rifle:
Charlie’s shooter was a 22 year old Antifa operative who thought he was killing a fascist.
One of his bullets was inscribed with “Hey Fascist! Catch!”
This is what happens when the left calls every Conservative and Republican a Nazi.pic.twitter.com/5PA6YJmkNK
— Chandler Crump (@realCCrump) September 12, 2025
Here they are:
- “Notices bulges OwO what’s this?”
- Hey Fascist! Catch! Up Arrow Symbol, Right Arrow Symbol, Three Down Arrow Symbols.
- “O Bella Chao, Bella Chao, Bella Ciao, Ciao Ciao”
- “If you read this, you are gay, LMAO.”
All of these have been pretty well identified at this point. Two of them are clearly references to fascism and two appear to be generalized online taunting.
If you are sort of dumb to the nut bag transtifa movement slang, like I am, here is Grok’s explanation on the bullet casing engravings meanings. pic.twitter.com/bfiMZD9CZx
— America First and Proud Cliff 🇺🇲🇺🇸 (@CJ27__) September 12, 2025
Just to be clear, these two refer to fascism and seem to identify the shooter as an anti-fascist.
- Hey Fascist! Catch!
- “O Bella Chao, Bella Chao, Bella Ciao, Ciao Ciao”
But what’s missing here is any clear reference to trans issues. The first engraving “Notices bulges OWO what’s this?” is sort of a reference to furry culture but as Grok suggests, it seems more like general taunting in this case.
As for the series of arrows, that’s the message that, according to CNN, was initially thought to be a reference to trans issues based on an initial search. But it turns out it’s actually a series of controller codes for a video game. It’s the code you put in to drop a really big bomb in the game. So the entire message on that casing was “Hey Fascist! Catch!” followed by a code indicating a big explosion.
So far, I don’t see anything else connecting this kid to trans issues, but he does seem to have identified as an anti-fascist and that jibes with the political conversations he reportedly had about Charlie Kirk prior to the shooting.
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