Utah Valley University, where the gathering was taking place at which Kirk was shot, is the largest state university in Utah, primarily a commuter school with an enrollment of over 45,000 undergraduates, 10,000 more than either the University of Utah, or Brigham Young Unviersity. Even though it is a state university, it is likely that the number of LDS students enrolled there is well over half the total, given the fact that most of its students commute from the Provo-Orem-Spanish Fork area, which is Utah's second largest metro area.

So what would attract a group of predominantly Mormon students to a gathering where Charlie Kirk, who is a conservative, Evangelical Christian, is the speaker? From a theological and doctrinal perspective, being Mormon and being Evangelical are mutually exclusive. Evangelicalism as a whole treats Mormons as a heretical cult, one of the worst in terms of deceiving people away from true Christian faith, at least, from their perspective. Mormon leaders and theologians are open in their caustic criticism of Evangelicals. In fact, it is a core doctrine of Mormon faith that Joseph Smith was informed directly by the Angel Moroni, who appeared to him and revealed the location of the "golden plates" he allegedly translated into English as "The Book of Mormon," that all of the followers of all of the other Christian churches that were in existence were wrong, that they were liars and did not have the truth.

Did I mention, that's a core doctrine of Latter Day Saints theology.

So it is common ground in conservative, right wing politics that brings Mormons together with conservative Evangelicals. But not on every single political point, either.

The Latter Day Saints have a Christian nationalist perspective that declares themselves to be the chosen people of God for the purpose of one day being the government of the United States. It is their divine will, included in their prophecy, that God has ordained them to take over the government, using the vast resources and power of the United States to convert the rest of the world to Mormonism. Everything they do, from temple rituals to having well over the average number of children, is built around this belief. And there is no room in this Mormon perspective of Christian nationalism, for the heretics of the Evangelical right.

Likewise, the dominionism of white, Christian nationalism that dominates some branches of conservative Evangelicalism considers all Mormons as heretics who will be put to death when they are given rhe righteous rule of American, as God's chosen people. Kirk got a crowd of almost 100% white college students to a rally on Utah's largest university campus. For the most part, the shared politics keeps religion out of the discussion, and Kirk's speeches are generally not overly laced with either Biblical references or Christian theology.

Is it possible that an LDS hard-liner, distrustful of Evangelicals because that's ingrained in their theological instruction from their pre-school days, took advantage of a casual, less secure atmosphere at an open air rally in a place that was obviously easy to access, and got at Kirk for his theological and doctrinal incompatibility with the Latter Day Saints?