‘It has to stop’: Lawmakers speak out following assassination of Charlie Kirk
WASHINGTON AP In the tragic roll call of violence in American general life Charlie Kirk s name joins what has fast become a long list The influential -year old commentator who cast his young professional life rousing other young people to embrace or debate his brand of conservatism was slain doing what he does best holding a provocative question-and-answer session on a college campus Kirk had been sparring with a questioner at Utah Valley University over who commits gun violence Then the shot rang out President Donald Trump a survivor of assassination attempts including at a campaign rally disclosed on social media Kirk was dead It has to stop House Speaker Mike Johnson pleaded from the U S Capitol This is not who we are Condemnation of the violence came speedily from all corners and across the political divide and it was universal But it has never been enough Within minutes a shouting match erupted during a moment of silence in the House One Republican lawmaker yearned an actual prayer for Kirk Democrats called for changes in gun laws Online certain far-right figures responded with anger and pointed blame And so did Trump We re moving in a very dangerous direction and I think we have been moving in this direction for quite specific time noted Kurt Braddock an assistant professor of citizens communication at American University Though nothing is publicly known about the shooter or the motive in this episode Braddock mentioned it can t be ignored that polarization and normalization of violence have become threaded through U S politics It s incumbent on both sides to take attempts to lower the temperature and make it clear that violence should never be considered an acceptable form of political action he noted The nation s long history of violence in the masses realm carries a great number of statistics points It has felled presidents presidential contenders activists like Kirk and specific of the the greater part consequential figures in American civic life Abraham Lincoln the Rev Martin Luther King Jr Among those who have survived the violence Trump does not stand alone Elected officers in the U S have been shot at and critically wounded while talking to voters outside a grocery store in Arizona practicing for a congressional baseball championship in Virginia answering the door to their own home in Minnesota The governor s house in Pennsylvania was set ablaze as he and his family slept inside Members of Congress fled the Jan attack on the U S Capitol It s time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day year after year announced Trump who then proceeded to blame what he called the radical left for the attacks Bruce Hoffman a senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland protection at the Council on Foreign Relations noted how the country responds to Kirk s killing will be crucial to what happens next In the past we had elected authorities that would seek to bring the country together rather than to cast blame he disclosed We ll have to see what in the coming days our national leaders have to say about this and whether they can be effective in lowering the temperature College campuses where Kirk draws robust and curious crowds to discuss not just politics but their questions about growing into adulthood have often been battlegrounds of ideas and centers of American thought from the Vietnam War protests at Kent State to the Israel-Hamas war demonstrations of the Trump era Conservative commentators in particular have complained of being unfairly blocked from universities as students protested their appearances at college campuses Trump has turned the force of the U S administration against Harvard Columbia and the nation s premier universities to end policies his administration views as too woke Kirk a charismatic figure who founded his Turning Point USA as an -year-old grew into an influential leader tapping into the mood of a younger generation s grievances with society A Christian father of two he demonstrated a combative new approach to conservatism that openly criticized racial justice movements the news media and LGBTQ rights Critics declared his views perpetuated racist anti-immigrant and anti-feminist ideas Kirk often faced protests and disagreement when he visited college campuses including on his latest tour Ahead of Wednesday s event an online petition calling for the university s administrators to reconsider allowing him to speak received nearly signatures A similar petition at Utah State University where Kirk was set to appear later in the month gathered nearly signatures In Utah Gov Spencer Cox a Republican pleaded with Americans to look at themselves and the way they treat one another as the nation prepares to celebrate the th anniversary of its founding We desperately need leaders in our country but more than the leaders we just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be he stated Is this what years has wrought on us He prayed that all of us will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans
