The Kill List Is the New Doctrine

What Modern Targeting Reveals About Perception, Symbolism, and Intent

This is Part 2 of my ongoing series, “Targeted,” which explores the evolving nature of political and personal violence in a converged threat landscape. In part 1 , we examined how attacks like the one in Minnesota begin not with weapons but with data—how digital exposure opens the door to targeting. Today, we move deeper into the doctrine. It’s not just what attackers can access—it’s who they believe you are. This installment examines the rise of the modern kill list: how visibility becomes a symbol, how perception fuels intent, and why being on someone’s radar today has more to do with narrative than notoriety.

We often talk about lone actors. But the truth is, few of them operate in isolation. They may act alone—but a system (however convoluted) informs them. They follow a doctrine. Sometimes, that doctrine is ideological. Sometimes it’s tactical. Increasingly, it’s both.

When authorities apprehended Vance Boelter after his targeted shootings in Minnesota, they discovered something chilling—but no longer surprising: a list. Dozens of names, addresses, affiliations. Lawmakers, abortion providers, and national political figures. It was meticulous. It was digital. And it wasn’t the first.¹

We need to stop treating kill lists as anomalies.

They’ve become a feature of modern violence, not an exception.

From Click to List

In Part 1, I wrote that the kill chain starts with a click. Most targeting in today’s landscape begins online—via search engines, data brokers, breach dumps, or something as simple as Zillow or Instagram.² But what comes next is just as important.

The list.

After gathering sufficient open-source intelligence, many threat actors begin to build a roster. Not one just of people they dislike—but of people who represent something they resent. The kill list becomes a convergence of data, narrative, and identity. It’s not just “who do I want to hurt?” It becomes “who embodies the thing I want to destroy?”

That’s where the doctrine takes hold.

Perception Is the New Targeting Logic

You don’t end up on a kill list because of who you are. You end up there because of what someone believes you represent.

In Boelter’s eyes, Melissa Hortman wasn’t just a legislator. She was a stand-in for everything he thought was wrong with the system. Amy Klobuchar wasn’t just a senator. She became a proxy for federal corruption. These weren’t people—they were symbols.³

This kind of symbolic targeting is accelerating. Executives, health officials, journalists, public servants—when exposure meets grievance, and that grievance gains narrative traction, you get a list.⁴ And someone starts planning.

Meanwhile, the symbolism plays out on both sides. On the same day, Boelter appeared in court, requesting relief due to the lack of sleep in jail⁵; citizens gathered to honor the Hortmans—Melissa, Mark, and their dog Gilbert—as they lay in state at the Minnesota Capitol.⁶

He made a list to erase meaning. We stood in line to affirm it.

The Doctrine of the Self-Tasked Insurgent

Kill lists used to belong to terror groups or organized actors. Today, they’re compiled by individuals who self-assign a mission. No chain of command. No operational cell. Just a grievance and a goal.⁷

Increasingly, these actors believe:

• They’re soldiers in an invisible war.

• Their actions are righteous, even divinely ordained.

• Violence is not an escalation—it’s a correction.

Boelter’s wife, Jenny, said she was “completely blindsided” by his actions.⁸ That’s not uncommon. Doctrine grows quietly. These actors often radicalize in silence, in forums, in feeds, and in the dark. Until the day they act.

In this case, that silence hid a kill list with up to 70 names.¹

That is not a grudge. That is a framework.

How the List Is Built

These lists aren’t scribbled in notebooks anymore. They live in Notes apps, spreadsheets, encrypted folders—and increasingly, they’re scaffolded by online “tradecraft.” Extremist forums and Telegram groups now circulate DIY assassination guides, surveillance tips, and target datasets.⁹ These are not just lists. They are tools—modular, scalable, and weaponized.

Most include:

• Full names and public titles

• Residential or office addresses

• Family members, routines, social media profiles

• Ideological tags: “globalist,” “traitor,” “baby killer”

What makes them dangerous isn’t the format—it’s the intent behind them and how easily they’re weaponized. These aren’t artifacts. They’re tools.

And like any doctrine, they’re modular. Scalable. Transferable.

What This Means for Security and Business Leaders

If you’re in a protective, security, or risk leadership role, you need to treat kill lists not just as evidence—but as early warning systems for doctrine in motion.

Ask yourself:

• Are we monitoring our people’s inclusion in threat lists or doxxing packets?

• Are we auditing exposure across personal and professional domains?

• Are we mapping perceived symbolism, not just actual authority?

The question is no longer, “Are they important enough to be targeted?”

It’s “What meaning might someone attach to them—and what story does that enable?”

Closing the Gap

Boelter didn’t just build a kill list. He followed one.

He moved from digital observation to physical action. From narrative to violence. From target acquisition to execution. And as he sits in jail—fighting for bail, citing sleep deprivation under suicide watch¹⁰—the doctrine continues to unfold.

His kill list didn’t end with the attack. It echoes into courtrooms, headlines, and grieving communities.

What he started with a list, we counter with resolve.

Because that’s what lists are now: a doctrine of modern violence.

And if we want to prevent what’s next, we’d better start reading them for what they are.

Footnotes & Sources

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/06/27/vance-boelter-melissa-hortman-court-hearing/

2. https://cybernews.com/security/billions-credentials-exposed-infostealers-data-leak/

3. https://www.startribune.com/vance-boelter-letter-klobuchar-walz-mn-assassination/601376682/

4. https://time.com/7294891/political-violence-rise-america/

5. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/courts-news/vance-boelter-tells-judge-he-hasnt-slept-in-almost-two-weeks-since-arrest/89-8ab888e8-b6e4-4263-bdd8-1d904c64cd72

6. https://apnews.com/article/1558dffabc9bbf087a4e45f9cf868b09

7. https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-november-30-2022

8. https://people.com/wife-of-suspected-minnesota-lawmaker-shooter-speaks-out-completely-blindsided-11762075

9. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/21/political-violence-online-murder-tradecraft

10. https://www.startribune.com/vance-boelters-detention-hearing-continued-amid-reports-of-poor-jail-conditions/601377784/