World News

The Aftershock of Charlie Kirk’s Death

By Oscar Stowell ‘28 in Fall 2025

On September 10th, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a Utah university, marking one of the most horrific and violent political assassinations of the 21st century. Kirk's death was just that: horrific. There is no more shocking way to silence a person's right to free speech than murder. Violence of any form, particularly political violence, is never the answer. With this in mind, it's incredibly important to note that it has also been hard for those who were in opposition with Kirk's views to see his actions sugarcoated. So, with that being said, it's important to examine Charlie Kirk's life, the impact that he had on vulnerable communities, and the specific, meaningful ways in which further political violence can be prevented.

Charlie Kirk was a far-right conservative activist who was known for his debate-style events, often held on campuses of universities. He was a vehement defender of freedom of speech, (when it personally benefited himself) and used his freedoms to spread his ideas. Many men, particularly in their adolescence, who felt alone or isolated by a rapidly changing world, felt a strong connection to Kirk. He was also an avid supporter of President Donald Trump, and frequently expressed his controversial and far-right leaning opinions on issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, critical race theory, and gun control. He encouraged women to go to college in order to find husbands and to "embrace their roles as mothers and homemakers." He expressed his belief that white Americans were victims. He spoke out against legal and illegal immigration, and expressed strong support of mass deportation. He called queer activists the "Alphabet Mafia," essentially painting them as dangerous and cruel. Just before his assassination, he was engaged in a debate about trans rights. He implied that trans people should be lobotomized and admitted to asylums.

With his views in mind, it is easy to understand how those who were victims of his unapologetic hate speech find it hard to witness his political legacy being sanitized and sugarcoated. Some have felt betrayed to see the flag lowered to half-mast for Kirk's death when more than 67,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza over the last two years. More than 13,000 people have died in Ukraine. Minnesota representative emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, as well as state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were murdered in June. The house of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband was broken into, in an attempt on the former Speaker of the House's life. 29 people have been victims of school shootings in America in the last year, and neither Charlie Kirk, nor the US government paid particular respect to any of them.

Though many people have differing opinions on how Charlie Kirk's legacy deserves to be remembered, one thing is clear: Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die. No one deserves to die as a result of gun violence. The answer to gun violence is not to blame those who were attacked by Kirk, especially as they are made increasingly more vulnerable by the current political climate.

While there is no simple solution to "ending gun violence" completely, there are many who believe that there are steps that must be taken in Congress, that the "answer" is immediate, bipartisan gun control legislation. (Though it is important to note that Kirk himself was a violent adversary of gun control, and said that "it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.") To many Americans, it seems that if the people who run our country truly believe that Charlie Kirk's death was unnecessary and abhorrent, they should put their potential, personal profits from firearms aside and work to make this country safer for everyone by implementing gun legislation.