People Twitter

I think there's a good chance it's a misunderstanding of the evidence early on.

Notices Bulge. OwO What is this?

I think this can be taken either as supporting or not supporting trans people. It could also be a furry thing. If you combine with the other engravings, esp the "Bella ciao" one, it definitely seems like leftist messaging.

I personally think he's on the right wing. The far right also opposes Trump, and targeting Kirk seems like a natural thing in that case. I don't think a leftist radical would though, because they care less about individual action and more about collective action. If anything there is leftist, it's ironically leftist just to spite Kirk even more. That tracks with the "if you're reading this you're gay" message, the engravings seemed to be intended to amuse the shooter, not send a message.

Using Hanlon's razor, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity", I think it's likely they misinterpreted the evidence, not that they intentionally misdirected the public.

Trump is obviously motivated to point the finger at the left because his party isn't looking so hot for the next election. That makes sense to me. But the FBI doesn't seem to have that same motivation, they want to catch the suspect, and providing information early is important for that in a case like this. Utah is very conservative, so if the shooter is a leftist, that dramatically reduces the search pool.

Anyway, that's my guess here. I guess we'll see as more information is reported whether he's likely a leftist or far right extremist.