By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, September 13 – The killing of the iconic American right-wing influencer, Charlie Kirk, at a university campus in the US on September 10, sent shockwaves across the country.
According to New York Times, Tyler Robinson, the man accused of shooting Charlie Kirk, was a stellar student in high school, raised in a Republican home in Southwest Utah who was training to be an electrician.
Both Kirk and Robinson appear to have a similar background, namely, White, middle class, Republican background and an intellectual bent of mind. And both believed in radical change but not of the same kind though. Kirk wanted a rightward shift that he considered wholesome, but Robison considered it as “fascist” and condemnable. Police consider the Kirk’s killing to be “political assassination”.”
Apart from the emotional wave it triggered in the American right -win, Kirk’s assassination also brought into focus three phenomena increasingly associated with the United States, namely, resurgence of right-wing conservatism, political intolerance coupled with a rejection of inclusivism, and last but not the least, the gun culture.
Charlie Kirk’s Persona
Stephanie A. Martin’s article in The Conversation gives a comprehensive picture of Kirk’s persona. He was one of the most visible leaders of the young conservative movement. He made national headlines at just 18 years of age, when he founded “Turning Point USA”, a conservative youth movement.
Kirk chose to skip college and devote himself full time to the promotion of conservatism. Inspired by Kirk, many young men and women skipped higher education in protest against the left-leaning bias in US universities.
Beginning in 2016, Kirk frequently spoke at Donald Trump’s rallies, which helped him to get much media mileage. In 2020 he published the “The MAGA Doctrine,” said to be a bestselling book that argued in favour of nationalism and Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Kirk’s podcast – “The Charlie Kirk Show” – was downloaded more than 120 million times over the past 10 months, according to “Turning Point.” Kirk’s guests in the podcasts included high profile Conservative politicians like Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Kirk founded “Turning Point USA” in 2012 with Bill Montgomery, a retired businessman. In fact, it was Montgomery who urged Kirk not to pursue a university education but dedicate himself fully to building a conservative youth movement. The move was financially rewarding as donors filled his coffers.
By 2024, “Turning Point” had claimed branches in more than 1,000 campuses, employed more than 400 staffers and had grown its annual budget to over US$ 8 million. Today, “Turning Point” is best known for hosting large-scale conferences. Its Student Action Summit in Florida regularly draws between 4,000 and 5,000 students and has featured appearances by Republican Party heavyweights including Donald Trump. Kirk’s “AmericaFest” attracted more than 10,000.
Kirk had a “Professor Watchlist” too. In this webpage, he named academics who he accused of a bias against conservatives.
Turning Point’s subsidies include Turning Point Action and TPUSA Faith, which influence electoral politics and churchgoers. Kirk and Turning Point provided important connections for younger conservatives and the Republican Party.
By 2020, “Turning Point” was playing a more overt political role. “Turning Point Action” ran voter-registration drives in battleground states, and the group sponsored buses and advertising to bring supporters to Washington, D.C., ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally. Kirk used his podcast, social media, and speaking tours to amplify Trump’s message and attack Trump’s critics.
Kirk frequently repeated Trump’s false claims that former Vice President Kamala Harris was directly responsible for all immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally. He called George Floyd, a Black man whose death by a Minneapolis police officer sparked a national debate over racial injustice, a “scumbag.”
He espoused culturally conservative views, advocating for gun rights, condemning abortion, holding up women as wives and mothers — and men as heads of households. And he mastered the art of the “what about?” retort, turning questions back on progressives and liberals who challenged him.
Criticisms
Critics argued that Kirk thrived on outrage and intimidation rather than debate. The “Professor Watchlist” has been denounced by faculty associations as a blacklist that chills academic freedom.
Kirk was criticized for misleading statements about COVID-19 vaccines and mask mandates. But Kirk argued that public health measures were a form of government control. His sharp attacks on political opponents – who he framed as “dangerous” drew accusations that he fuelled polarization and inflamed tensions on American college campuses and beyond.
Gun Culture
Kirk’s supporters say that he did not preach violent politics and that he only enjoyed debating. He would focus only on the ideology of American conservatism. But Kirk was a staunch defender of gun rights as enunciated in the Second Amendment inducted into the US Constitution in 1791. Despite the high incidence of crime involving firearms, US society has never thought it fit to ban the use of the gun by private citizens.
If, at the end, Kirk fell to an assassin’s bullet, it was because he was functioning in a society which had embraced gun culture wholeheartedly.
A Public Health Issue
Experts say that gun violence is one of the most pressing “public health” issues facing the US in 2025. According to the latest data from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US experiences one firearm-related death every 11 minutes, making it a leading cause of death among multiple age groups.
The 2023 CDC provisional data indicates that 46,728 people died from firearms, representing the third-highest number of gun-related deaths ever recorded in US history.
Guns and Suicides
Suicide accounts for 58% of deaths due to the gun. Gun use is related to mental health. 38% of murders involve gun use. Therefore, the gun has a significant role in interpersonal violence and poses a severe threat to communities. Firearms figure in the death of children and teens aged from I to 19, demonstrating the vulnerability of young Americans to gun violence. 86% of the victims of the gun are males, pointing to a gender-specific pattern in murders with the gun.
Violence using guns causes an annual economic loss of more than US$ 280 billion.
Violence Against Leaders
America has been seeing violence against its leaders. Ezra Klein said in a New York Times article that in 2020, there was a plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan. In 2021 pipe bombs were found at the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters. In 2022, a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home, intending to kidnap the then-Speaker of the House. She was absent, but the intruder assaulted her 82-year-old husband, Paul, with a hammer, fracturing his skull.
In 2024, Donald Trump was nearly assassinated. In 2025, Molotov cocktails were thrown into the home of Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania during Passover. Melissa Hortman, the former House Speaker of Minnesota, and her husband, were murdered, and State Senator John Hoffman and his wife severely injured by a gunman.
The 1960s saw the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. In the 1970s, George Wallace was shot by a would-be assassin but survived, and Gerald Ford faced two assassination attempts in one month. In 1981 Ronald Reagan survived after John Hinckley Jr.’s bullet ricocheted off his rib and punctured his lung.
Ballot vs Bullet
Kirk’s killing should make Americans of all hues rethink on the dangers arising from divisive and hate-filled politics, even if there is no explicit call for violence. Attempts should be made to explore ways of resolving conflicts peacefully.
In the 19 th Century, the American Confederacy rejected President Abraham Lincoln’s appeal for a peaceful solution of the issues involved and what followed was a war which in which more than 600,000 Americans were killed.
So long as there is freedom of speech and democratic institutions functioning under the Constitution people should use discussion and the ballot to determine outcomes and abjure violence. It is hoped that Kirk’s murder would not trigger more violence in US politics.
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