Karan Kirkham rushed to check her business records last week when hearing that messages etched into bullet casings had been found in the gun used to kill Charlie Kirk.
‘I wanted to make sure we didn’t have anything to do with it,’ said the Louisiana-based Etsy.com merchant who engraves custom messages on to bullets.
Yet it wasn’t Kirkham’s Bullet Designs Inc., nor any other company that inscribed cryptic messages on the four rounds found in the rifle used to assassinate the popular conservative activist, author and media personality.
Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old alleged shooter, engraved them himself, a charging document filed Tuesday alleges.
Inscribing messages on bullets is nothing new.
In waves of so-called ‘Trench Art’ during both world wars, soldiers engraved ammunition in their downtime as keepsakes to commemorate fallen comrades.
Some gangs have been known to inscribe casings with names and messages as a form of intimidation.
And a quick search on Etsy turns up at least 34 businesses, including Kirkham’s, that etch names, motivational messages, inside jokes and expressions of affection on bullet casings, mainly for custom novelty gifts.
Hellbound and Down 