Charlie Kirk was shot and killed yesterday while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University. He was 31 years old.

Kirk co-founded Turning Point in 2012 when he was still a teenager and turned it into a remarkably successful conservative grassroots movement, focusing on discussing important cultural and political issues on college campuses around the country. He was undoubtedly one of the strongest and most articulate communicators of his generation.

Kirk’s campus events always generated a strong crowd, and the gathering at Utah Valley was no different. Thousands of students congregated in an open area, including a grassy hillside, to hear Kirk take student questions ranging from religious liberty to gang violence. After Kirk answered a question about transgender shooters, the crowd heard a single loud shot ring out and witnessed Kirk fall off his chair beneath his tent. Video footage then shows the crowd fleeing the scene and Kirk’s security team carrying him off.

Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two children, aged one and three. As of this morning, the murderer remains at large.

Debating Ideas, Listening to People

Kirk was a rare figure in American politics. At only 31, he managed to create a massive movement that enjoyed countrywide donation and support. Kirk helped sway the Gen Z vote in favor of Donald Trump in 2024 and advocated strongly for conservative values. Conservative columnist Ross Douthat credits Kirk with making conservatism “cool” again among young people. His dedication to open debate and his Christian faith is admirable and well worth remembering.

Writer Ezra Klein, Ross Douthat’s liberal colleague, wrote today in The New York Times that Charlie Kirk “was practicing politics the right way.” He traveled the country and openly invited dialogue and debate among people with different views and backgrounds. People often vehemently disagreed with his views, but Kirk always fought for their right to speak their minds. I can’t currently locate the clip, but yesterday I saw a video of Kirk telling a bystander on a college campus that if a country’s citizens stop talking to each other, civil war eventually ensues. The same fate awaits every married couple that stops communicating. The marriage withers as resentment and misunderstanding fester. Kirk obviously believed in the value of the honest exchange of ideas, and that he died in the act of living out this old-standing vision of America’s ideals of free speech makes his commitment all the more noteworthy. He died doing what he loved.

Sadly, videos of people celebrating Kirk’s murder soon circulated on TikTok after the shooting. One of the first MSNBC broadcasts speculated that the gunshot came from a celebratory supporter, and the network’s Matthew Dowd (who was promptly fired) suggested that Kirk’s rhetoric justified the killing. Millions of Americans, however, simply stared at their phones and computers in a state of shock and sadness as the news unfolded.

Murdering a vocal political activist is not just an attack on one person but violates the foundation of the American experiment. We are a country built on open and honest dialogue. As the saying goes, “I may hate what you say but I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it.” That violence is even regarded as an appropriate measure against someone with opposing views is almost too hard to stomach. Kirk simply spoke his mind and invited others to do the same. In addition, he believed that the only alternative to this kind of civil approach to politics was, indeed, violence. Someone, and we don’t yet know who, chose violence yesterday instead of a conversation.

Kirk was also an outspoken Christian in his public life, and his friends verify that he practiced what he preached in private. He believed that truth is transcendent and that ultimately our relationship with God is the most important thing we have. Just hours before his death, Kirk’s wife Erika posted on X:

Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk, and may we find indeed refuge and strength in the Almighty during this time of tragedy.