The horrific shooting of Charlie Kirk is a profound shock for Americans. Many will have disagreed with the firebrand conservative activist but few, particularly among the young, will not have heard of him. As of Thursday afternoon police were still hunting an unnamed suspect said to be of college age; the possible motive was unknown. But the killing is yet more evidence of the intensifying menace of violence that cuts across America’s political spectrum.
Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, was credited by Donald Trump with delivering the youth vote and transforming the demography of the US president’s base. He used his huge social media presence to propagate the Maga worldview to a new generation of Americans. Yet he was happy to engage in traditional forms of political disputation. He toured universities across the US, challenging often hostile student audiences to debate him on issues ranging from gun rights to abortion and LGBT+ rights. He propounded often chauvinistic and xenophobic ideas. Nothing, however, excuses violence even against views people find abhorrent.
US history has, sadly, been marked by political violence for generations; America has no monopoly on such occurrences, though its culture of gun ownership can worsen the consequences. The country has lived through upsurges in assassinations before, notably in the 1960s. But the tempo has quickened alarmingly during this decade. President Trump himself survived an assassination attempt last year, with another gunman later arrested close to where he was playing golf. A Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were killed in their home in June. In April, the home of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor Josh Shapiro was set alight while he and his family slept inside.