This is not about Charlie Kirk. He was admirable as a debater and as a conservative who welcomed debate. Some of his utterances were reprehensible, but no one should die because of opinions. This is about the 22-year-old who apparently shot and killed Kirk from a rooftop -- and also the 20-year-old who shot at Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally, grazing his ear. Both snipers worked from a rooftop.

Neither was especially political. Kirk's apparent killer, Tyler Robinson, was not allied with any party and didn't vote. And the young man who tried to execute Trump, Thomas Crooks, was a registered Republican. Both came from conservative families nested in MAGAland.

The more sophisticated takes of Robinson's motives veer away from political passions. Many Gen Z men like him have sunk into the shadowy vortex of social media. Their online life had become separate from what we would call real life. They parade their cleverness before an internet audience of who-knows-who. Both lived on and off with their parents; they hadn't really launched.

One thing deepened the motive mystery before either perpetrator was named. Both were sharpshooters, products of a gun culture. As noted, both placed themselves on roofs a good distance from a political rally. A sniper firing from a rooftop is an archetypal scene in our culture. The shooter represents the power from above, unseen and controlling.