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In “Analyzing Radical Leftist Networks in Utah” our friends at the Center for Security Policy have produced a startling new report on the ANTIFA network in Salt Lake City, Utah. The report begs the question does the lone gunman theory hold up, or was there a larger conspiracy behind Charlie Kirk’s killing?
The Center for Security Policy has tracked a network of over 30 radical leftist groups in Utah for some time, including Armed Queers Salt Lake City, beginning in 2022.
As of this writing, there is no public evidence directly linking Armed Queers SLC to Kirk’s assassination. So far, no evidence has been publicly disclosed that Tyler Robinson and his alleged trans boyfriend, Lance Twiggs, were formally affiliated with Armed Queers SLC, or any other leftist group.
However, soon after Charlie Kirk’s murder the New York Post and Axios reported that investigators were looking into leftist groups in Utah to determine whether Charlie’s confessed murderer had any help. So far, the only group named publicly is Armed Queers SLC. The Armed Queers social media pages were taken down after the shooting.
There is reason to be concerned that investigators may lack sufficient context to identify linkages where they might exist. Historically, American intelligence has struggled to understand the nature of threats that do not operate based on vertically integrated command and control structures.
ANTIFA doesn’t give out fraternity pins or membership cards. As report author Morgan Wirthlin explained, ANTIFA is organized horizontally, which can be challenging to understand from the outside. The most basic unit is an affinity group, which can range from two to fifteen people who know each other well. Which makes penetrating the group particularly difficult for counterterrorism operators.
“All participants can act and react instantly without waiting for orders – yet with a clear idea of what to expect from one another,” according to CrimethInc, an anarchist and antifascist site.
One person may participate in multiple affinity groups, each of which utilizes different tactics or has different interests.
Following long-established revolutionary organizing principles, ANTIFA and its adjacent networks operate as dispersed cells. As a matter of operational security little is written down or transmitted through easily penetrated electronic communications.
However, for decades, the Center for Security Policy has studied foreign and domestic subversive and violent movements along ideological lines, repeatedly demonstrating that ideology and doctrine provide a superior understanding of how threat networks are structured and how individuals move through those networks.
Out of respect for the important details and context explored in Ms. Wirthlin’s extensive research we are not going to try to repost it all here, rather we encourage CHQ readers and friends to go to the complete report through this link.
There is as yet no public evidence that Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter had any affiliation with groups named in this report.
However, while it is unclear if Charlie Kirk’s assassin had connections to radical groups in Utah, many have celebrated what he did.
On September 11, 2025, the day after Kirk’s murder, @antifautah and @utah8647 posted a video on Instagram showing Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Senator Mike Lee, and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, with their eyes crossed out as “Bella Ciao,” an antifascist song plays – the title of which was engraved on a bullet casing in the rifle used to kill Kirk. Both @antifautah - Antifascist Action of Utah (AFA)-and @utah8647 Instagram accounts were created in August 2025. Both have posted the address of the Salt Lake Field Office of ICE promoting organized protests at “4pm every Friday.” These protests have been documented to have occurred, so it is reasonable to believe that AFA Utah does possess real members, and it’s not merely an online account.
One reasonable avenue for further investigation, suggested the report’s author Morgan Wirthlin, would be an attempt to ascertain which “local organizers” in St. George Armed Queers SLC interacted with, and whether those individuals included Robinson, Twiggs, or other individuals known to them.
Given that Armed Queers has worked with the violent Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) since at least 2022, and that the SRA refuses to answer questions about whether the shooter’s roommate, Lance Twiggs was a member, any conclusive evidence that Twiggs was affiliated with Utah SRA would be significant.
Unfortunately, such evidence is not likely to be available to open-source researchers and will have to await the disclosures by the Utah state authorities and the FBI during the trial of Tyler Robinson and anyone who assisted him in the heinous crime to which he has confessed.
- ANTIFA network
- Charlie Kirk Assassination
- Trump Executive Order
- Domestic terror designation
- Salt Lake City Utah
- Center for Security Policy
- Armed Queers SLC
- Tyler Robinson
- Lance Twiggs
- horizontal organization
- social media
- Bella Ciao song
- Antifascist Action of Utah (AFA)
- Socialist Rifle Association (SRA)
- FBI
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