A 31-year-old husband and father of two young children was gunned down this week by a sniper while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. That statement alone should be devastating.
The man who was murdered dedicated his life to dialogue—to open and respectful disagreements. He used his intellectual gifts fully and became a living expression of the First Amendment. When asked why he spent so much time engaging with people who disagreed with him, he replied: “When people stop talking, that’s when violence happens.”
Tragically, for Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and the founder of Turning Point USA, someone decided that the only way to silence him was not through argument, but with a single bullet.
This is where we are as a society.
I think back to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December. His murderer, Luigi Mangione, claimed that he was acting out of anger toward the health-care system. That Mangione held those beliefs was proof of his mental illness. That a disturbing number of people in our society excused, justified or even applauded his crime was proof of our moral rot.
Kirk’s murder is not an isolated act. In June, Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home, while Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were attacked in their home. They survived. The gunman, a radical pro-life “activist,” targeted the Democratic legislators and their spouses in a single morning of terror.
In 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump himself survived two assassination attempts while running for a second term: one at a rally in Butler, Pa., where a shooter opened fire from a rooftop and grazed his ear, and another a few weeks later at his Florida golf club.
The list goes on, but the pattern is the same. First, an ideology that demonizes and dehumanizes one’s opponents; second, a perpetrator gripped by mental illness; and third, a public response that is not firm and united, but hesitant, sometimes even approving. Each equivocation signals to others that political murder is somehow acceptable.
It would be dangerous and negligent to ignore the rise in left-wing violence in America. Too many in the mainstream progressive culture not only embrace hateful ideologies but also tacitly approve of violent actions. Walk through the anti-America, anti-Israel, anti-Trump protests happening across the country, and you will see it plainly. At the same time, we must acknowledge that violence is not the exclusive domain of the left. The deeper crisis is that an entire generation is coming of age shaped by poisonous currents that cut across the political spectrum.
For years, many insisted that there was a wall between “online” and “real life,” as if what happened on social media stayed there. That wall has crumbled. Social media is not separate from real life; it is shaping minds, fueling hatred and making violence feel justified. It has given the world innovation and connectivity, but is being weaponized to spread lies, stoke hatred and brainwash its users.
What next? We can complain, or we can make a change. We must do better.
May Kirk’s memory be a blessing. May we honor his legacy by fostering respectful and substantive discussions with those we disagree with—because that is the only way to build a healthier society.
