No one should ever die over differences in belief. It is not the American way, or at least it never used to be the way we handled our disagreements.

Mr. Kirk was a lightning rod of right-wing rhetoric and often used inciting and bitter language about those he disagreed with and their policies.

But he did not deserve to be killed for it.

I can think of nothing I ever read or heard from Mr. Kirk that I agreed with him about. But this does not give someone the right to take a life. Whether I or anyone else agreed or disagreed is irrelevant; he had every right to speak and write about it.

Mr. Kirk is also not a martyr for any cause, to make him so clouds the bigger issue. His words have to be considered when one examines the man’s life. One cannot do such things in a vacuum. Words can and do have consequences.

“I think it’s worth it. I think 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.” Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk said of gun deaths on April 5, 2023,

And in the news avalanche after Mr. Kirk was shot, another school shooting happened, with young people killed. This was ignored. It’s not even a front-page story anymore. I wonder if Mr. Kirk visualized a shooting in a grammar school when he uttered that statement?

The shooting will be characterized as an “assassination” by the right instead of a “nut with a gun” as they characterize school shootings, and they will miss the point.

Perhaps Mr. Kirk’s untimely death will serve a greater purpose.

Perhaps it will open a dialog among Americans to confront our violence problem.

Perhaps it will serve as a catalyst for less antagonistic, winner-take-all political diatribes and foster open communications.

Mr. Kirk may have roused extreme responses from those with whom he disagreed, but he did not deserve to be killed for it. 

Mr. Kirk was a husband and father to two young children, and we should grieve that they live in a country where people resort to violence. Two young lives forever changed by the pull of a trigger, in this case and far too many others.

Sending thoughts and prayers, no matter how sincere, absent actual effort to change things, seems vacuous. Let’s hope we never find ourselves where we accept a few gun deaths as the price of our living in this country.