Official Statement on the Charlie Kirk Murder

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Daytona Beach, FL, 15 September 2025: All deaths are tragic, and all murders are crimes. Who the victim was, what his politics were, or what he was saying at the time of his murder are as irrelevant as what clothes he was wearing. To argue otherwise is to condone crime when politically convenient, and Operation Blazing Sword – Pink Pistols (“OBS-PP”) finds this monstrous, unethical, and hypocritical.

Although our organization advocates solely for the Second Amendment and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, OBS-PP staunchly supports all Constitutional Rights, including the vigorous exercise of Free Speech. Whatever Mr. Kirk’s opinions regarding queer people, he had the right to express them peacefully. Those who claim to cherish liberty yet celebrate his murder reveal they cherish expedience over principle. OBS-PP condemns both Mr. Kirk’s murder and the celebrations surrounding it in the strongest possible terms, and solemnly affirms our purely defensive mission. The murderer, and those who cheer him, do not represent us, our ethics, or our mission. Our hearts go out to Mr. Kirk’s family for their tragic loss.

Accusations that the murderer was tied to a Salt Lake City Pink Pistols chapter are false. No such chapter exists now, nor did one exist at the time of Mr. Kirk’s death. From 2020 to 2021, a University of Utah student named Ermiya Fanaeian ran a Salt Lake City chapter. While initially welcomed, she began using the Pink Pistols name to promote broader political issues, violating our rule that we are a single-issue organization devoted solely to the safe, legal, and responsible use of firearms by the queer community. In 2021, her group and Pink Pistols parted ways, and she renamed her organization Armed Queers of Salt Lake City. From that point forward, she no longer represented Pink Pistols, and the Salt Lake City chapter was formally listed as defunct on our website, where it remains. Any Utah-labeled social media tied to her group did not and does not represent Pink Pistols.

To restate the facts plainly:

• Ms. Fanaeian parted ways with Pink Pistols in 2021. She has had no involvement with us since.
• Any social media accounts calling for or celebrating violence are not affiliated with OBS-PP.
• OBS-PP abhors all violence, particularly violence that denies rights to any person or group.
• We extend our sincere condolences to the Kirk family for their devastating loss.

 

Operation Blazing Sword, Inc. is a grassroots 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping queer people become responsible firearm owners by maintaining a database of over 1,900 queer-friendly volunteer firearm educators located in every state of the USA. It also submits legal briefs (amicus curiae) to protect the rights of not just queer people, but all peaceable citizens, to have access to the most effective tools for self-defense. www.blazingsword.org

Pink Pistols, a division of Operation Blazing Sword, is dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the gender and sexual minority community.
www.pinkpistols.org

Media Contact: Ms. Erin Palette, 386-401-0386 (text), erin@blazingsword.org