On September 10th, 2025, Charlie Kirk, 31, was assassinated at a college campus speaking event while advocating for conservative political ideas and engaging with supporters across the political spectrum. This act of violence was politically motivated, and there is no justification for it.
The FBI described the weapon used as a high-powered bolt action rifle — in other words, a weapon of war. Violence like this doesn’t resolve conflict; it fuels retaliation, leading only to more death, destruction, grief, and sadness.
There is never a justification for taking another person’s life for exercising public, ideological, or persuasive political speech. Likewise, there is no justification for dehumanizing others based on immutable characteristics such as race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or gender expression. Being uncomfortable with learning a new perspective is your problem. One act destroys a life in an instant; the other slowly erodes someone’s sense of worth. Both, in different ways, are a form of murder.
A society that settles its disagreements with bullets instead of words, ideas, and policy is not a society worth living in. To prevent tragedies like this, we must build a fair and just society — one where pressure is released through equity and opportunity, not violence.
Politics, government, and laws are human constructs — tools, not truths. At the core, human beings are simply human beings. Everything else is a structure handed down by generations before us.
A better world is possible. But are we willing to admit that someone’s starting point in life has a profound effect on their trajectory? Are we willing to recognize how upbringing shapes opportunity, psychology, and achievement? Would universal access to healthcare, education, mental health care, and housing reduce suffering? Yes. But it would also mean accepting that no one individual can be the richest person in the world.
The choice is ours: pursue force and repression, which breeds only more violence, or confront the root causes through real societal change.