Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot in broad daylight while answering questions at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
According to the FBI, the shooter used a high power rifle while on top of a building, Kirk was later pronounced dead after being brought to a nearby hospital.
While alive, Kirk was a divisive figure. He was the Co-founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative media and political campaigning company that gave speeches on college campuses and focused on getting young people involved in conservative politics.
Kirk was a strong advocate for the Second Amendment. “It’s worth it 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” Kirk said during a TPUSA faith event in 2023 in reference to a question about the 2023 Nashville Covenant school shooting.
Kirk continued to be a strong advocate for the Second Amendment even as the rate of school shootings rose and deemed some deaths an acceptable price to pay in order to keep guns accessible.
He continued to be a strong advocate for gun accessibility up until the moment he became a victim of a gun.
A moment before Kirk was shot he was taking a question regarding gun violence.
When asked if he knows how much gun violence there is in America he asked “counting or not counting gang violence?” and then a bullet hit him in the neck, and his body went limp.
Kirk’s death sparked a diverse array of reactions online. Some, including President Trump, expressed grief and sent condolences to Kirk’s family.
President Trump says he will award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian can receive from the presidential office.
Others took to social media to celebrate or make light of Kirk’s murder.
A user on Bluesky posted “He died doing what he loved: trying to get other people killed.”
Kirk was a victim of gun violence on campus property. He had private security and police officers nearby. A privilege most students cannot afford.
According to the FBI’s violent crime report, violent crime has been on a general trend downward since the 90s. However, school shootings are the exception.
According to CNN’s school shooting database, since 2021, there has been an average of 80 school shootings a year in the U.S.
According to a survey from BestColleges 65% of students said school shootings made them fear for their safety while on campus and 63% of students said that stricter gun laws would make them feel safer.
Restricting gun accessibility is widely supported among the general American population too. According to the Pew Research Center 58% of Americans support stricter gun control laws.
On the same day Charlie Kirk was shot there was a school shooting at Evergreen Highschool in Colorado where a 16 year old gunman moved through the school with a revolver trying to maximize casualties.
There were two victims, both students at the high school, one in critical condition and one stable.
There was a shooting on N.C. A&T campus on September 13, bringing this issue to our own campus once again.
Kirk saw students and other people as an acceptable cost for maintaining accessibility to guns.
Camden William, a Freshman journalism student at N.C. A&T said that gun violence is something that they think has no business being in a space for learning. “I think about [gun violence] when on campus and try to be aware of it wherever I am,” William said.
Feeling safe in places of learning is not the reality for many students, even for the people who deem that cost acceptable.
