The single shot that took conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s life last week upended a gun control debate that has raged for decades with little movement.
As high-profile shootings piled up in recent years, activists said the solution lay in background checks and bans on semi-automatic AR-style “assault weapons,” high-capacity magazines and 3D-printed firearms.
But authorities said the shot that killed Mr. Kirk came from a Mauser bolt-action rifle chambered in .30-06 caliber — a classic “hunting gun” and the type of weapon that had previously been immune from even the most aggressive dreams of gun controllers.
“As usual, the Democrats wasted no time before weaponizing the assassination of Second Amendment advocate Charlie Kirk to promote their unconstitutional gun-grabbing agenda,” said Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America. “But the murder weapon is a sporterized, Mauser Gewehr 98 — a bolt-action rifle first manufactured in Germany over a hundred years ago in 1898. So, when Democrats call for ‘assault weapons’ bans, every gun owner must realize that means grandpa’s old hunting rifle too.”
Bolt-action rifles load each round one at a time by manually working the bolt.
The rifles usually at the core of the gun debate are magazine-fed semi-automatic guns, in which the firearm itself automatically brings a new round into the chamber after each trigger pull — though, like a bolt-action, each trigger pull still fires only a single round.
Automatic rifles, or machine guns, fire continuously until the magazine or belt is empty. They are already heavily restricted under U.S. law.
The ammunition used to kill Mr. Kirk, .30-06, is considered a high-powered cartridge, meaning it can deliver a more powerful punch at a longer range.
The AR-style rifles that have dominated the gun debate in recent years generally use what’s known as an intermediate cartridge, which is a balance between high-power ammunition and lower-powered ammo generally used in handguns.
Using a bolt-action rifle is a rarity in high-profile shooting crimes, though Lee Harvey Oswald used a bolt-action 6.5 mm Carcano rifle to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.
According to data compiled by The Smoking Gun website, a bolt-action rifle was present in only five of the 263 deadliest shootings in U.S. history and was almost always a secondary weapon, often never used. So-called assault weapons were used in 71 shootings, with AR-15-style rifles the choice in about half of those.
Mr. Kirk was talking about mass shootings during one of his signature “Prove Me Wrong” events at Utah Valley University on Wednesday when he was fatally shot.
Law enforcement recovered the bolt-action rifle that they say was used in the shooting from the woods near the school campus. It was wrapped in a towel.
A spent round was in the chamber and shell casings left beside the gun were etched with messages. Among the messages were “Hey fascist, catch!” and “If you read this you are gay, LMAO.”
Police arrested Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah, in connection with the shooting death on Friday.
Mr. Robinson had “confessed” to “a family friend,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. The friend contacted the Washington County, Utah, Sheriff’s Office.
Guns quickly became a focal point for many on the left in the wake of the slaying.
Some of the more grotesque commenters online suggested a sort of justice in Mr. Kirk’s death, given his vehement opposition to gun control.
A clip of Mr. Kirk talking about the tradeoffs of gun control made the rounds: “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
Members of Congress called for a renewed debate on restrictions.
“Pass some gun laws!” shouted Rep. Jahana Hayes, Connecticut Democrat, after the House held a moment of silence and prayer for Mr. Kirk.
Rep. George Latimer, New York Democrat, later told reporters outside the chamber, “Does it take shooting a conservative to start to realize the gun scourge? I hope they realize it.”
Second Amendment Foundation Founder Alan Gottlieb said Mr. Kirk’s shooting upends much of the rhetoric surrounding guns.
“Democrats treat all guns like they are ’assault weapons’ and want to ban them. Guns don’t have brains to hate with or fingers to pull their own triggers. Attacking gun ownership will not solve any problems,” Mr. Gottlieb said.
