Perplexity About No Apparent Exit Wound
What happened to the purported .30-06 bullet that struck Charlie Kirk in the neck?
For my third true crime book, The Meaning of Malice, I analyzed the death of a young man who purportedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the right side of his chest with a .243 caliber deer rifle. The bullet did massive damage to multiple organs in his chest, but to my surprise, it did not—according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner—pass through his chest and exit his body. Instead, the soft-point hunting round fragmented and was stopped before it exited.
Researching this case taught me to appreciate that the action of a bullet striking a human body can be very surprising. Nevertheless, the purported action of the purported .30-06 bullet that struck Charlie Kirk in the neck seems especially perplexing.
A 150-grain, .30-06 bullet's energy at 150 yards from the muzzle varies by ammunition, but a common hunting cartridge has an estimated value of approximately 1,800-2,000 foot-pounds (with the bullet traveling at about 2500 feet per second). In other words, the .30 caliber (.30 inch diameter) metal projectile struck his neck with sufficient kinetic energy to move a 2,000 pound mass a linear distance of one foot.
Thus, it is indeed hard to understand how Charlie’s neck could have stopped a projectile with this much kinetic energy.
If I were investigating the murder, I would consider the hypothesis that Charlie was shot with a weapon equipped with a suppressor and loaded with a subsonic cartridge to further reduce the sound. I have seen footage of someone firing a rifle with this setup, and the shot was amazingly quiet. The effective range of such a weapon is about 100 yards or less, and the shooter must be very skilled.
However, such a setup could fire a subsonic projectile that would penetrate a human neck without passing through it. In this scenario, the actual assassin (firing the suppressed rifle) hypothetically coordinated the timing of his shot with someone else firing a normal (supersonic and loud) rifle cartridge into the air at the same time to create a distraction or red herring.
In a functioning society in which the people trust their authorities—including their medical examiners—it would be easy to discover what happened and to disclose at least a preliminary report that would satisfy most reasonable people. The trouble our Republic is facing now is that so many of us no longer trust our federal and state authorities to tell us the truth.
For example, we have strong grounds for suspecting that medical examiners are not diligently investigating (with the proper analytic methods) unexpected, fatal cardiac arrests in young people to determine if they were caused by vaccine-induced myocarditis.
As a former US Army Ranger, I have questioned in other comments how a 30.06 round traveling at over 2,000 fps did not pass through Charlie's neck as the ME has stated. The mass of that round traveling at more than the twice the speed of sound should have almost decapitated poor Charlie. Had it passed through his neck it could have killed someone else. I used to teach the NRA Safe Hunter course, and one of the things we taught was "Where will that bullet go if you miss?" Make sure of your backstop.
I am also a Christian and after prayerfully considering this event, I believe we witnessed a miracle and the hand of God keeping that bullet from killing others.
I also believe God spared President Trump's life at Butler, PA. Crooks fired eight 5.56 rounds from his AR-15 and killed one man and injured two others before a Secret Service sniper killed him.
Those who aren't believers may be asking that if we witnessed miracles, why was President Trump's life spared and Charlie killed? Doesn't seem fair, does it? Certainly not by earthly standards. But Christians know that God has His purposes, and can see how both those events have worked to His glory - just look at the religious revival taking place right now, not just in America but around the world.
Charlie's widow Erika was leaning on Jesus and drawing strength from Him as she forgave Robinson. Non-believers don't understand how she could have forgiven the killer of her husband but it's simple. If you want God to forgive you for your sins, then you must forgive others for theirs. On the cross, Jesus asked His heavenly father to forgive those who were killing Him. If you call yourself a Christian, then that's how you follow Christ. Not just in words, but in actions
God is good and all good things come from Him. Much good has already come from Charlie's being martyred. When have you ever heard high level US government officials mentioning Jesus and His Gospel publically. God is returning the United States to "One nation under God". The question is not do you believe in God. The question many should be asking is "Can I afford NOT to believe in God."
Considering that so many people are finding this story hard to believe (including myself), I think it would be a good idea to release the autopsy photos showing that there was no exit wound.