Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed on Wednesday, spoke in the spring at a public event in Phoenix, Arizona, about death threats he said had been directed at him and his family.

       "Look, we get death threats -- people want to murder us," Kirk told an audience in May, who had gathered for the latest installment in a series of faith-based public events called "Freedom Night in America."

       "You should not have to walk around with security for your entire family and for myself just because you support a politician or political candidate or certain values," he said at the time.

       Kirk, who regularly debated controversial topics in front of crowds that sometimes included thousands of college students, compared the dangers of his line of work to those of a police officer or firefighter, saying, "I'm just in another higher-hazard job." The remarks came on one of several occasions during which Kirk publicly discussed having received death threats and taken security measures to address them.

       On Wednesday, Kirk was shot and killed while on stage at Utah Valley University for the first stop on his latest speaking tour of college campuses. The suspect remains at large and the motive is unknown.

       The FBI on Thursday said it had recovered what is believed to be the weapon used in the fatal shooting of Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA. The search continues for the suspect -- who, according to authorities, is believed to be college-aged -- with personnel working "around the clock" to locate the individual, officials said during a press conference on Thursday.

       Ahead of Kirk's visit to Utah Valley University, some students started an online petition asking university administrators to stop him from coming. Though the conservative activist's visit was controversial on campus, police were tracking no specific or credible threats before the fatal shooting, Utah law enforcement sources told ABC News.

       Speaking on a podcast last year, Kirk described receiving frequent death threats, saying the dangerous messages showed his political movement had struck a nerve with political opponents.

       "We get death threats all the time. They send stuff to our homes and all that. That's just par for the course," Kirk told "The George Janko Show." Kirk claimed that death threats were evidence of successfully working for the country, claiming, "I mean, if you are not getting active death threats, you're not really doing much for the country."

       When Kirk appeared on a podcast with Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom in March, Newsom made reference to the dangers surrounding Kirk's visits to college campuses.

       "You were getting threats," Newsom said on "This Is Gavin Newsom." "You still get tons of threats."

       Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump who spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, boasted 5.6 million followers on X and has voiced a host of controversial views, including criticism of gay rights and a rejection of the separation of church and state.

       In a post on X in 2023, Kirk voiced opposition toward what he described as the "LGBTQ agenda," suggesting children should not be exposed to it. On a podcast one year earlier, Kirk said, "There is no separation of church and state," describing the notion as a "fabrication."

       "It's a fiction," Kirk added in an episode of "The Charlie Kirk Show." "It's not in the Constitution. It's made up by secular humanists."

       In 2023, Kirk said at a public event that gun deaths amount to a worthwhile price paid for gun rights.

       "I think it's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the 2nd Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal," Kirk told an audience at TPUSA Faith, an arm of his Turning Point USA organization.

       Last year, Kirk visited a string of college campuses for what he called the "You're Being Brainwashed Tour."

       The killing of Kirk comes amid a spate of political violence. In recent months, a gunman fired more than 180 shots at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in their home and another Minnesota state lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded by the same gunman.

       During that same period, two staff members at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed after an event at the city's Jewish Museum.

       During the 2024 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump survived two assassination attempts.

       The violence has coincided with a rise in threats leveled at some public officials. The total number of concerning statements and direct threats against members of Congress more than doubled between 2017 and 2024, the United States Capitol Police found.

       Additionally, more than 500 threats were made against federal judges over a recent 11-month period, which amounted to an increase from the previous year, U.S. Marshals Service said this month.

       ABC News' Meredith Deliso, David Brennan and Megan Forrester contributed to this report.