The Charlie Kirk Shooting Leaves the First Amendment Bleeding

Charlie Kirk speaking with attendees at the 2018 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. PHOTO CREDIT: Gage Skidmore

The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is a bullet fired at all of us. That bullet was also fired at a father, husband, and a nice man who made himself approachable to all.

You might have nodded in agreement with Kirk’s podcasts, you might have dismissed him as too provocative, or you might have (as we did) agreed with much of what he said but shrink from some of his statements. But one thing everyone should have noticed about Charlie Kirk was his willingness to engage with people – students especially – who vehemently disagreed with him. We’ve seen clip after clip of Charlie Kirk patiently listening to invective, only to respond with thoughtful responses and questions that promote dialogue.

If you doubt this, check out Kirk’s response to an NSFW South Park parody of him. “We need to have a good spirit about being made fun of,” Kirk said, smiling after replaying South Park’s roast of him.

In this heated moment, we need to reaffirm that every American has a right to speak, whether it is temperate or intemperate, good or bad, fair or unfair speech. You have the right to be angry about what other people say, but you don’t have the right to hurt them. (Note to anyone itching to pick up a gun – violence is a surefire way to hurt whatever cause you’re espousing.)
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Violence in retribution for speech is un-American. We are deeply disturbed and concerned about what happened on Wednesday in Utah, not only for the sake of Charlie Kirk and his family, but also because when someone is shot for political reasons, we all take a bullet.

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