By Fionnuala Boyle

Copyright dailyrecord

Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer and prominent figure in the MAGA movement, has died after he was shot in the neck at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah in front of 3,000 onlookers yesterday. The 31-year-old right-wing political activist, author, and media personality, was killed on Wednesday, September 10 when gunfire erupted at an event hosted by Turning Point USA , a conservative youth organisation. The gunman is still at large despite two arrests being made in the chaos that ensued and a “manhunt” has been launched . The campus was put under shelter-in-place protocols following the incident. President Trump paid tribute to Kirk, writing on his social media platform Truth Social in part: “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the US better than Charlie… He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me”. But who was Charlie Kirk, the prominent Donald Trump supporter? And what is his bizarre link to a Scottish town that informed the name of the organisation he headed up across the Atlantic? Charlie Kirk is the co-founder and head of Turning Point USA, an American non-profit organisation that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses founded in 2012. Born on October 14, 1993 in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Kirk briefly attended Harper College before deciding to dedicate his career to activism. Kirk has successfully created a potent platform for media and activism aimed at engaging the younger American generation . He is recognised for using online debate culture to spark discussions with those who hold different views from his own and answer questions from university students. Kirk has written five books promoting a right-wing agenda and supporting Trump and the Make America Great Again movement. Kirk was a major ally of the president and was been praised by Trump for getting young voters to cast their ballot for him in the 2024 Presidential Election. Kirk is married to real estate agent Erika Frantzve. They tied the knot in Scottsdale, Arizona, on May 8, 2021. The couple share a daughter, Sarah Rose, who was born in 2021, and a son, whose name is not known, in 2023. It turns out Charlie Kirk named a religious centre after a Scottish town because of its links to the film Braveheart . The Falkirk Centre was set up alongside Jerry Fallwell, president of Library University in Virginia, in 2019 to encourage students to stay true to a “conservative upbringing” and to “restore American ideals and Judeo-Christian values”. The centre, based at Liberty University in Virginia, was named after Falkirk because of the town’s link to freedom-fighter William Wallace and the epic film that put Scotland on the world stage . On their website, the conservatives claimed an affinity with William Wallace, who suffered a defeat in the Battle of Falkirk, because they feel they have been losing their own “battle” when it comes to fighting for far-right values. “For the past few decades, conservatives have felt like we’ve been losing the battle,” the website states. “From Hollywood to academia, from corporations to government, from special interest groups to the mainstream media… anti-American sentiment has long dominated the most powerful institutions in America. “Today, we have an opportunity to embolden a new generation of patriots to fight back with resilience, and like Wallace, hold up the banner for freedom and advance rather than retreat.” In 2021, the Falkirk Centre was renamed the Standing for Freedom Centre. The founder stated that the original name “was derived from one of the major battles between the Scots and England in the late 13th century – the Battle of Falkirk.” They added: “Although steered by the infamous William Wallace, the Scots could not handle King Edward I’s vast numbers and lost the battle, but the defeat was a drastic turning point in the war for Scottish independence .”