Where Were You When Charlie Kirk Was Assassinated?

For the Boomer generation, they can all answer the question, “Where were you when you heard that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated?” Born in 1970, I remember hearing these conversations as a child. The trauma and the horror of Kennedy’s assassination had not subsided when in 1975 the Zapruder film was released to the public profoundly affecting the nation by providing visual, graphic evidence of Kennedy’s assassination. The horrific footage shocked the public a second time leaving a lasting impact on American culture.

Now, we and our children have been continually exposed to progressive political violence and assassination attempts for the past decade. In 2017, Congressman Steve Scalise was wounded by an anti-Trump domestic terrorist while attending baseball practice for the annual congressional baseball game. In 2024, two individuals attempted to assassinate Donld J. Trump resulting in the death of Corey Comperatore who was killed as he shielded his wife and children from gun fire. Yesterday, as Charlie Kirk, a prominent and outspoken activist for traditional values on college campuses, spoke to over 3,000 students at Utah Valley University, a single shot rang out. Accompanied by his wife and children on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in Orem, Utah, Charlie was struck in the neck with massive amounts of blood pouring from the wound instantly. Within an hour, Charlie was pronounced dead.

News of the shooting spread like wildfire on the internet. Indeed, and evidencing how interconnected our world has become, news of the shooting spread so quickly, I found out in Moscow, Russia, within minutes. Unlike the second half of the 20th century and the Kennedy assassination, we did not have to wait to see a homemade film that had been confiscated by the Secret Service and later released to the public twelve years later. In 2025 within minutes, we were able to see the graphic and gory assassination of Charlie while still trying to wrap our arms around the gravity and meaning of this evil act.

At the moment that Charlie was shot, I was having dinner in Moscow with a couple of elderly Russians, whose son is a neighbor of my dear friend here. They were very involved in perestroika, and the early Yeltsin years so discussing the era with them was very interesting. Prior to the shooting, our conversation became very philosophical, and we started talking about the idea that there are only two types of people - people and anti-people. Creators and destroyers. Uniters and dividers. The people who built Saint Peter’s Basilica and painted the Sistine Chapel and those who built Sobibor and the Gulag Archipelago. As I read about Charlie as we were dividing the bill, I felt as though I was being told something. It was too coincidental that our conversation matched what was happening back in my home country and how evil and destroyers were coming to the fore.

On my walk home from dinner, I was speechless and deep in thought trying to make sense of the senseless violence. Later in the night, I read statements from progressive politicians and pundits that made my blood boil. People like Van Jones and Matthew Dowd who argued that Charlie’s activism is what got him killed. Such statements are no different than the Democrats in the south who blamed Martin Luther King, Jr. for his own assassination. Like Dr. King, Charlie was killed for speaking out against false ideologies. Charlie was killed for speaking the truth about the nuclear family, love of God, and faith in our fellow man.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) stated that he was “shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk” and that “political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.” This is the same Hakeem Jeffries who posed with a baseball bat promising to keep pressure on “Trump’s One Big Ugly Bill.”

In connection with Kirk’s assassination, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated, “Political violence has no place in America.” This is the same Chuck Schumer who announced to Supreme Court Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsch, “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price!” Indeed, within months, a deranged individual was arrested outside Justice Kavanaugh’s home armed with firearms and a handful of other weapons in a plot to assassinate the justice and his family and then commit suicide.

In reference to Kirk’s assassination, former Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA) made a statement, “Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America.” This is the same Kamala Harris when asked by Ellen DeGeneres during an interview, if she had to be stuck on an elevator with either President Trump, Mike Pence or Jeff Sessions, who would it be, Harris responded, “Does one of us have to come out alive?”

History is replete with examples of evil, violent rhetoric leading to political violence. Such fact is exemplified by events such as the incendiary language used during the French Revolution, which fueled the Reign of Terror and mass executions. We can look to the heated and evil antisemitic propaganda preceding the rise of Nazi Germany where dehumanizing language contributed to the Holocaust. Similarly, the inflammatory speeches and evil, hate-filled rhetoric directed at African Americans during the Jim Crow era helped justify segregation and violence against Black communities. Political leaders and figures who employ violent or dehumanizing evil language legitimize and incite acts of violence ultimately escalating conflicts and undermining social stability. Indeed, Charlie and his family paid the price for this progressive violent rhetoric, and it is the very face of evil. Violent dehumanizing rhetoric is always used, not by creators and uniters but, by those who seek to destroy and divide.

Such evil will not stop with Charlie. If not actively and relentlessly confronted, this progressive evil will grow into something unimaginable to the creators in our society for only the evil societal destroyers can fathom the depths of their own heartless souls. While the urge for the creators is to seek justice and maybe even revenge, such urges must be strenuously resisted for fear of becoming the evil which we seek to avoid. The world can never have that kind of evil again. As such, those evil people who employ violent and dehumanizing rhetoric should be shunned by all of society. The risk of such evil gaining power is too great.

Kirk who often stated that, if he died, he would most like to be remembered for his faith, often integrated his firmly held religious beliefs into his advocacy work. Charlie is survived by his wife, Erika, a three-year-old daughter, and a one-year-old son. He was 31 years old. Please pray Charlie’s family and please pray for the USA. It is what Charlie Kirk would want you to do.

Interviewer asks Charlie Kirk how he wants to be remembered