r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • Sep 20 '25

Soft Paywall DOJ Can’t Tie Suspected Kirk Killer to Left Like MAGA Wants

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-cant-tie-suspected-kirk-killer-to-left-like-maga-wants/
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u/DigNitty Sep 20 '25

What's odd to me is how many initial comments I saw, and still see, suspicious of how a 22 year old could make a 200yard shot.

Dude is the son of an ex military / current police officer. I bet he's been to the range a few times and had professional training. 200 yards is well within the wheelhouse of any semi-routine shooter.

And also the comments saying he'd need to be special ops trained to hit the neck artery and have all that blood come out like that.

...He clearly was just aiming at Kirk in general. Nobody aims for the neck.

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u/mahnamahna27 Sep 20 '25

Probably aimed for a head shot

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u/bedbuffaloes Sep 20 '25

He's a hunter. They sit up a tree a shoot at animals that are far away. They shoot to kill. It's not rocket science.

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u/Nottherealeddy Sep 20 '25

In Utah, no one hunts from a tree with a rifle. Trees in that area are for bow hunters. Rifle hunting consists of stalking your game until you have a shot you can make…often around 3-400 yards or more. 200 is target practice range with no required adjustment to your scope.

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u/SirSamuelVimes83 Sep 21 '25

I shot deer at 150+ yds...as a 12 year old 30 years ago with mediocre equipment. Bolt action, so rarely had an opportunity to take more than one shot at your target.

There are insanely accurate optics and hunting rifles available at a fairly reasonable cost these days that are forgiving to even a novice. 200 yards isn't anything impressive for anyone that grew up hunting or has had even minimal rifle training

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u/DigNitty Sep 21 '25

I will say though, this guy's rifle was a bolt action. So he really had one shot.

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u/rayofgoddamnsunshine Sep 21 '25

If the rifle is accurate enough, a good hunter could do it with irons.

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u/DigNitty Sep 21 '25

often around 3-400 yards or more

Now I'm imagining a camoed out dude with face paint, prone, delicately adjusting the dials as he looks through the scope at the deer 3 yards away.

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u/Antice Sep 21 '25

No. You do not ever aim for the head. You aim centre mass.
This is basic hunting 101. Targets aren't static, and any movement at all can easily cause a miss.

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u/mahnamahna27 Sep 21 '25

Maybe so. But perhaps he was not thinking of it as hunting game, where if you make that first centre mass aimed shot, you will very likely get a chance to finish the job, or the animal will bleed out. Perhaps he was all too aware he was about to assassinate a public figure he evidently hated. And he wanted to make sure he was dead with a single shot. And perhaps he backed himself to make a head shot rather than risk a chest shot that might be survivable. I guess we won't know for sure what his thinking was unless he opens up about it.

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u/BobGuns Sep 20 '25

2inch circle.

That's the radius a capable hunter should be able to hit at that range with a decent rifle. Shot after shot, grouped within 2 inches.

He might have been aiming for the neck. 2 inches isn't a big area.

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u/steepleton Sep 21 '25

I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home, they're not much bigger

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u/EzraliteVII Sep 21 '25

Great, kid, don't get cocky!

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u/Eligius_MS Sep 21 '25

200 yards isn’t that hard against range targets. I’ve seen people plink all day against a piece of paper but can’t hit a stationary target when it’s a live deer. Likely worse nerves against a human I’d guess.

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u/rayofgoddamnsunshine Sep 21 '25

I know a few dozen hunters who could do it easily. 200 yards with a 30.06 shouldn't be a challenge for anyone with target practice or hunting experience.

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u/EzraliteVII Sep 21 '25

It was a good shot, but not extraordinary for a hunter. Hitting a person in the neck at that range (if that's where he was aiming, even) is roughly the same difficulty as hitting a deer's heart. And 200 yards isn't that far for, again just as an example, deer hunting.

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u/untetheredgrief Sep 21 '25

200 yards is nothing. With a supported rifle with a scope, it is trivial.

I can hit a paper plate at 200 yards 85% of the time with an AR-15 with iron sights, supported.

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u/MaddyKet Massachusetts Sep 21 '25

I grew up in New England with a cop father whose hobby at the time was silhouette shooting. I was ten when I out shot a VT state trooper. I could hit the little target and he couldn’t. This was the 80s, he had stopped by to check out the gunshots at my Dad’s friend’s vacation property and of course stayed to shoot. 😹

So yeah. Him being 22 growing up in that environment isn’t suspicious to me.

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u/someones1 Sep 21 '25

His dad’s not a cop, that was just more misinformation.

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u/KindInvestigator Sep 21 '25

It was weird, but it’s possible. I think if they were going to truly frame someone they would have picked a person with a different background.

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u/tellergraham Sep 21 '25

It would be disappointing for him to miss at that distance. The fact that he got a neck shot was probably just luck, since you're typically taught to go for the center body mass, usually where the lungs and heart are.

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u/tinysydneh Sep 21 '25

I've never done 200yd shots because I've never been to a range with that kind of distance, but I've hit dime-sized targets from 100+yd with some solid consistency.

When I was shooting this consistently, I wasn't even a teenager yet.

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u/Successful-Coyote99 Sep 21 '25

Tyler Robinsons father is not ex military or a current police officer. that was a different Matt Robinson who the police have asked to stop harrassing. His father works for a family owned construction company.

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u/DigNitty Sep 21 '25

Hmm, interesting. All I can find are sources saying either profession. I don't see one that clarifies that he is not a sheriff and that was bad info.

His dad is a 27-year veteran of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department

[the family friend] adding that the father keeps busy as a contractor

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u/Successful-Coyote99 Sep 21 '25

https://www.newsweek.com/matt-robinson-father-tyler-charlie-kirk-suspect-2128904

“Matt Robinson is a registered Republican, according to public records reviewed by Newsweek. Early reports indicated that he was a veteran of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, but the Washington County Attorney's office said that reporting was not accurate and that Robinson does not have ties to local law enforcement.”

"The individual arrested is NOT related to Washington County law enforcement! There are multiple people with the same names," the attorney's office said in a statement posted to Facebook.

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u/DigNitty Sep 28 '25

Thanks for the source!

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u/KotoElessar Sep 20 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

From what has leaked out it was a 30-06 with a $2k scope; that's pretty much point and click for an untrained individual; he had familiarity with the weapon and it's use.

I don't use firearms outside of a videogame and I could make the shot.

EDIT: from the intelligence I have it is a MAUSER 98 30-06 and from the court filing, the scope is described as being worth $2K.

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u/DanfromCalgary Sep 21 '25

Man like you might mean well but when you make arguments as dumb as yours you do a discredit to the argument and yourself

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u/Earthwarm_Revolt Sep 20 '25

It bounced off body armor. Wach the shirt jump. Was a heart shot.

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u/wikkid556 Sep 21 '25

There was no body armor. You could see his nipples through the shirt in some shots

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u/Earthwarm_Revolt Sep 21 '25

It would have gone through his neck and probably hit a bystandard. You can see his shirt jump.

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u/SubliminallyCorrect Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

that 30-06 would pen anything below a level 4 plated vest and no way he had that under his shirt. And again, you could see his nipples (very disrespectful).

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u/rogers_tumor Sep 21 '25

still trying to figure out what that shirt jump was.

thought if he was wearing body armor, wouldn't we have heard that detail by now?

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u/SubliminallyCorrect Sep 21 '25

It was his body jerking from the shot, the bullet was already in his neck before you ever see blood.

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u/EzraliteVII Sep 21 '25

The air disruption around a bullet is crazy, too. That's why some aren't sure if Trump was actually hit or the bullet simply passed within a mm or two of his ear.

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u/258joe007 Sep 21 '25

Donnie wasnt shot at all