Notorious conservative political speaker Charlie Kirk was shot on the grounds of Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. He did not survive.
Reactions to his assassination have been varied, with some celebrating it and others declaring it a tragedy. Pictures and video of his death have become a fixture as well.
Kirk’s passing came off the back of his platform that perpetuated hate against several minority groups, and special to this case, his steadfast devotion to the Second Amendment. With such a platform having been built, for some it is unsurprising when a gun is then turned on him.
For his wife and two young children, who were all present for his assassination, there must be some sympathy for them. They had no hand in building his platform, yet they will now live without his hands present in the family.
For the country as a whole, Kirk’s assassination is part of a larger, dangerous precedent.
“Extreme violence is increasingly becoming the norm in our country,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University to Reuters.
Reuters also identified there being “at least 300” domestic political violence cases since Jan. 6, the most in such a timeframe since the 1970s.
Assassinations have a tendency to bring about retribution, as Lilliana Mason, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, pointed out in the same Reuters article.
Actions like these serve as a slap in the face to real political discourse and further divides and enrages a divided and enraged nation.
Where does that leave us when deliberating with extreme political figures? There is an answer beyond senseless killing.
It must begin with acknowledgment from all parts of the political spectrum that violence, especially of this nature, is unacceptable.
There is much good to be said in how even apathetic parties agree that such an assassination is an unacceptable form of political action.
Speaking further on political discourse, not all forms of it requires engagement. When possible, do not engage with those actively antagonizing or attempting to undermine civil debate.
Speaking further on engagement, seek to engage with local politics. There are community members in areas like the Coastal Bend that have already become acquainted with healthy political discourse. Seek them out and get acquainted with their methods of engaging.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a worrying part of a much larger trend toward domestic political violence. Such violence is a step toward dissolving what chances for healthy discourse exist in the current day.
Efforts to curb the mainstay of harming political figures must be a bipartisan effort, as daunting of a task as that may sound. For as little as one may agree with one’s political platform, one must also recognize that assassinating them over it is a needless task as well.
