Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University highlights rising left-wing violence, with a new CSIS report showing 2025 on pace for record extremist incidents.
The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah has thrust political violence back into the national spotlight. Prosecutors have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson in the Sept. 10 killing of Kirk as he addressed an audience at Utah Valley University.
Kirk’s assassination is the most high-profile attack yet in what terrorism researchers call a surge in left-wing violence.
A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that „the number of terrorist incidents involving left-wing extremists so far this year puts 2025 on pace to be the left’s most violent year in more than three decades.“
For the first time in over 30 years, left-wing attacks and plots outnumber those from the far right. The study tracks 750 terrorist incidents in the U.S. between 1994 and July 2025.
The report defines terrorism as „violence or threats by nonstate actors meant to achieve political goals and spread fear.“ Analysts say the rise on the left is driven mostly by attacks on government facilities and partisan plots aimed at conservative leaders.
