The U.K.-based tabloid Daily Mail put making quick ad revenue over presenting a complete factual understanding of the ballistic test results of the rifle allegedly used to kill conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Their article, long-windedly titled “Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims,” intentionally misrepresented what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were able to recover from Kirk’s body, proving fuel to nutjob conspiracy theorists.
That deceptive headline was copied for the Daily Mail’s now viral X post.
Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims https://t.co/l70QXvGBrb
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) March 30, 2026
“The bullet that killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk may not match the rifle used by suspected killer Tyler Robinson, a bombshell new court filing states,” wrote U.S. reporter Melissa G Koenig in her first paragraph, essentially making seem as though the ballistic markings left on the bullet did not match the rifle.
Amid bombarding the reader with ads all over the page, the article noted, “the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ‘was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr Robinson [sic].’”
But what did that mean?
The headline, X post, and first sentence of the article were intentionally worded to deceive the reader; to make it sound as though the bullet recovered from Kirk’s body didn’t match a test bullet fired from the recovered bolt-action rifle. Only later in the article did it note the ATF wasn’t able to recover enough intact material from Kirk’s body to identify markings left by the barrel.
When a bullet is fired from a gun, the hard steel of the barrel leaves markings on the softer copper jacket that are fairly consistent bullet-to-bullet, basically becoming a finger print for the gun. Apparently, there was not enough left of the copper jacket to show that fingerprint. However, what Koenig wrote made it seem like a completely different gun was used in the assassination. Of course, she was citing the alleged killer’s defense team.
At worse, the Daily Mail wanted to generate an inflammatory headline so they could get revenue from X engagements and so they could serve up an ungodly amount of ads to those who clicked to read more on their website. Their headline was no better than something the National Enquirer would cook up to get product sold in the checkout line in grocery stores.
At best, it showed an ignorance of how ballistic testing and gun tracing worked.
According to her author page, “Melissa is a senior breaking news reporter who joined Daily Mail in 2021. She covers a variety of topics including politics, business and entertainment. Prior to joining Daily Mail, Melissa worked for the Long Island Herald, where she earned Honorable Mention for Best Front Page and Second-place for In-Depth Reporting at the New York Press Association in 2020.”
The Daily Mail and Koenig’s framing of the ballistic test results were an example of the worst tendencies and instincts of British tabloid journalism.
