Courtesy of ABC7 Chicago
The death of Charlie Kirk has brought to the forefront a difficult subject that requires nuance and the ability to listen to those you disagree with. Unfortunately, much of this conversation is being had on social media, the last place I would go to for nuance. It undoubtedly fosters an environment that celebrates a lack of, or even complete disregard for empathy. However, it is my opinion that the true lack of empathy we are currently witnessing is for those who have been facing the political violence promoted by Kirk for many years.
Something as simple as posting quotes or clips from Kirk that remind us of the type of person he was tears people online apart. Many on social media are calling his post-mortem critics heartless, evil or even disturbed for supposedly celebrating a man’s death. But I would like to point out that a reminder of Kirk’s own beliefs is not an unreasonable attack. Kirk himself viewed victims of gun violence as little more than collateral damage. For instance, in 2023 Kirk was quoted responding to a question about how to protect gun rights amidst the recent news of a shooting, saying, “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.” If Kirk withheld the right to view gun violence with this kind of heartless objectivity, then I do not see why others cannot see his death from the same lens.
Ultimately, the criticisms of Kirk largely lie in this self-promotion of the unbridled right to bear arms and the horrific scenes we see on the news everyday as a result of that rhetoric. I did not want him to face that fate, but I can not say that I am surprised he did. If my peers or I seem less than stunned, it is probably because we are desensitized to the daily occurrence of gun violence. Around the same exact time Kirk was shot on Sept. 10, a shooting occurred at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado. There is not even enough time between tragedies in the United States for us to read every article that is posted, or look at pictures of the many victims and reflect on these horrific events. This makes me wonder why we are being so heavily criticized for the reactions we are having to Kirk’s death. How can we be expected to properly analyze the complexities of gun violence and politics when we are never even able to come up for air?
I would also like to emphasize the lack of understanding for those who have complicated feelings about the death of somebody who spewed hateful and bigoted speech to millions. A little over a year after George Floyd’s murder, Kirk gave a speech on his “Exposing Critical Racism Theory” tour calling the deceased man a “scumbag.” This racist and insensitive comment is one of many that have come from Kirk about an individual who was murdered at the hands of police brutality. It highlights the very reasonable distaste that many individuals have for him. This is the type of language that he used to talk about transgender people, Black people, immigrants and other marginalized groups. Those who faced the consequences of the discrimination he promoted are not obligated to feel mournful upon the news of his murder, and that does not mean that they wanted him to die.
The other side of this discussion points out a crucial point. Neither death nor violence are the answer to the already intense and disturbing political violence we see occurring daily in our country and around the world. Assassinations cannot resolve the racism or bigotry running through the veins of this country.
What I would like to highlight in this conversation is that gun violence does not discriminate. If we truly want to end deaths like Kirk’s and ensure that this does not become a common occurrence for our political officials and activists, then we must care enough to criticize beliefs like his until change happens. The most caring thing that we can do at this moment for Kirk and for our country is to ask how we can prevent something like this from happening again.
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