I Do Not Mourn the Death of Charlie Kirk

I waited quite a while before drafting my own thoughts and response towards the shooting of Charlie Kirk—I wanted to ensure my commentary was not one with a rash emotional response, but one of thoughtfulness and reflection. Two days have passed since his shooting and after a collective 4 hours of writing, I decided I had too much to say to fit into a Facebook post, so I wrote this blog post.

Many people may be upset by my opinions expressed here, so I want to preface this lengthy blog post with this: I do not condone the murder of Charlie Kirk. Violence is NEVER the answer, and should not be the answer to our growing political unrest in this country. Any deaths from gun violence are too many deaths.

The same day of Charlie Kirk’s murder, there was a school shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado, leaving 2 students in critical condition. I am filled with incredible sadness that school shootings have become so normalized in our country, that our country barely bats an eye at such news anymore. Evergreen High School barely made headlines on September 10th, 2025. Rather, news outlets and social media feeds were filled with hundreds and hundreds of posts mourning Charlie Kirk: many of my Facebook friends were devastated by the news, outraged and angry and in deep mourning. Yet, I saw only one post in my timeline about the Evergreen School shooting, not from a Facebook friend, but from our local newspaper.

I want to make my point clear: The slaughter of children in their place of learning has become normalized in our society. But, suddenly an influential political talking-head is shot and everyone is devastated, up-in-arms and looking for someone to blame. Where is this same energy and call-to-action for the children of gun violence??

For those that aren’t familiar, there’s a tool from Google called Google Trends that compares the search popularity of two searched terms. I compared the term “Charlie Kirk” to the term “school shooting” on the date of September 10th. For every 1 search of the term “school shooting”, there were roughly 100 searches for the term “Charlie Kirk”. Two tragedies happening on the same date, and we have data to show the drastic difference in internet popularity.

Preliminary data says this: In the United States, there have been 800+ deaths of children from gun violence in 2025 so far alone. In 2024, 1,403 children died from gun violence and 2,581 in 2023. That is over 4,500 children deaths from gun violence in our country in a mere 3 years. When is it enough? How many children must die before we wake up and do something to protect these children???

As I’m writing this, I have such an unshakable pit in my stomach researching and reading those statistics. 4,500 children was close to double the population of my entire high school. 4,500 children is roughly 1.5% of the population of my home town. 4,500 is about 60% of the population of small town in which my partner grew up and family still lives. It makes me so incredibly sick to my stomach putting that statistic in terms of numbers I can relate to and put into perspective.

I pose these two simple questions: why is the life of a wealthy, successful political commentator/internet celebrity worth more than the lives of the 4,500 children who have died in the past 3 years? Why are we so devastated, upset, and outraged with the death of Charlie Kirk but not the 4,500 children who have lost their lives the same horrific way? I can’t help but feel such an intense rage and frustration that so many are putting this man on a pedestal while I mourn these children so deeply.

I’ve often heard the conservative right talking point that the answer to school shootings is to arm the teachers–fight fire with fire. I’d like to propose a hypothetical use Charlie Kirk’s murder in place of school shootings for a thought-experiment and to draw a parallel between them: had there been armed guards at the debate, would the outcome have changed? The most likely outcome is the shooter still would have shot and killed Charlie Kirk. The armed guards may have reacted quickly and have also been able to shoot and kill the shooter, but the outcome remains the same–Charlie Kirk is still dead. 1 death from firearms turns into 2 deaths from firearms.

This isn’t a solution to the problem, it only compounds the violence.

I’ve personally never owned a firearm, I’ve never felt the need to own one. But growing up, I sure as hell needed my safe space at school. I needed the sense of community, the sense of accomplishment and the sense of belonging. I needed the safety that comes from the educational environment. And every day children are being robbed of that experience, replaced with fear, violence, and death.

Charlie Kirk was known as someone who normalized gun violence. Charlie Kirk’s stance on school shootings remain clear. In a response to the 2023 school shooting in Nashville which killed 6 children, Charlie said that the right to bear firearms “comes at a price” and some gun deaths are “inevitable” to protect the freedom of the second amendment. Those words do not come from a man that feels empathy or sadness towards these children. These words do not come from a man who wishes to minimize the suffering of American children fearing for their lives. Therefore I do not feel empathy or sadness towards his death. I will not mourn the death of Charlie Kirk.

I will not mourn the death of Charlie Kirk. I said what I said, and I stand on it. I do not celebrate his death, but I do not feel empathy towards him either. I feel incredible sadness and sympathy for the children he left behind, who will now grow up without their father. And I feel sympathetic for his wife, who will now raise those children alone. But, I will not mourn the death of Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk built his platform spreading hatred, disguised as preaching “Christian-first values”. Charlie Kirk, like many on the conservative right, claim to lead a life of Jesus’ teachings while acting in complete opposition.

I grew up an Evangelical Lutheran Christian–and nothing radicalized me more than reading the teachings of Jesus! Not the Christian Nationalist positions that Charlie Kirk held, but the ACTUAL teachings of Jesus: Love thy neighbor, feed the hungry and poor, treat those as you wish to be treated, love the stranger as yourself, help others without the expectation of return. I could go on… I consider myself quite agnostic at this point in my life, but fully believe I live a life closer to Jesus’ teachings than many of those who claim to be Christians.

Charlie Kirk claims to live a life of Christian-first values, but the legacy he left behind reflects everything but that:

- Charlie Kirk was a known supporter of the genocide of the Palestinean people– He has gone on record denying the actions of Israel starving Palestinean children. Wouldn’t Jesus have wanted these children fed? Wouldn't Jesus have condemned the killing of the innocent?

- Charlie Kirk was known for spewing hateful rhetoric towards immigrants, saying there are “way too many legal immigrants coming into this country”, and has called for full freezes on legal immigration. Wouldn’t Jesus have wanted to welcome strangers in and care for them as his own?

- Charlie Kirk was known for his disdain of the LGBTQ+ community, calling them “an abomination to God”. Wouldn’t Jesus have welcomed in the marginalized and outcasts and avoided judgement of them?

I could go on: his stance on people of color, his stance on women being subservient to men… his stances show nothing but hate and vitriol towards those that don’t look like him, agree with him, or live the life he is telling others is the only right way to live.

These stances are not only political, they are a human-rights issue. These stances do not come from a man that loves as deeply as Jesus did, nor help as deeply as Jesus helped others.

Charlie Kirk does not mourn the death of children murdered in their school, Charlie Kirk does not mourn the death of children being starved in Gaza. Charlie Kirk does not mourn the loss of immigrants trying to find a better life. Charlie Kirk does not mourn for the LGBTQ+ community members who took their own lives because they did not fit into society.

Empathy is not owed to oppressors.

I will not mourn the death of Charlie Kirk.