Charlie Kirk has been shot, and this reveals a deeper issue in America

I have been trying to make sense of this in my head for a while now, Charlie Kirk shot in the jugular whilst talking about gun control in America. There are many things here to discuss, regarding this matter. 

I think the most important thing here to be discussed at this present moment is the lack of gun control in America. The very sentiment that has been preached in America by the left has been catalysed in full form today at that rally in Utah. Guns kill. The incident that transpired today is a testament to that. There is no way around it this time, you can’t blame people of colour this time, immigrants or trans people, the issue here is guns. His death was preventable, but because Americans value their ‘god given right’ to carry firearms, fatalities are unfortunately a consequence of that. If you value your second amendment right at the cost of human life, you have something seriously wrong with you. The world that the right has been advocating for for years is finally coming into fruition, and maybe that will make them realise that they are not protected by the beliefs they carry. Gun violence is indiscriminate, it takes lives regardless of who you are, regardless of your beliefs. A mere 45 minutes after the killing of charlie kirk there was a school shooting in Colorado that left 4 children in critical condition. America has a problem with guns, and the average American has become so desensitised to violence because the very foundation of your society is built on bloodshed. Every few terms a president gets assassinated, every week a child dies in a school shooting. For some reason your government watches these atrocities transpire and still they do nothing to prevent it. You are orchestrating your own downfall. There is a simple solution here, a solution that has been right in front of your eyes for decades now. Unfortunately the solution will never be reached, because Americans value their own personal rights regardless of the impact it has on the livelihoods of other people. If gun laws are revisited in America, and gun control becomes more enforced, that's an amazing thing yet it simultaneously spits in the face of all of the innocent children that have died at the hands of gun violence. As soon as a politician is at the mercy of the very sentiments they expressed, only when the right realises that they are not immune, is the moment when real change will happen. 

To have a conversation around empathy in the face of Charlie Kirk’s killing is interesting because, where is your empathy for all of the kids who died at the hands of school shootings? Where is your empathy for hundreds of Palestinians who die every day at the hands of Israel? The very Israel that is funded by the United States. Where is your empathy for the marginalised communities Charlie Kirk spent his entire career dehumanising? Where is your empathy for the immigrants who have been detained by ICE? Where is your empathy for congo, sudan, ukraine? 

Now it is irrelevant for me to tell you about my beliefs and how I feel regarding his killing, because in the grand scheme of things, his killing echoes a greater issue in the political landscape of America.

Charlie Kirk’s killing is not an isolated event, it mirrors incidents of the past, present and the future of America. The only way Americans will see reform is if you stand up and take it for yourself. When his killing incites political violence, and I don't say “if” I say “when”, when his killing results in an even further division between right and left catalyzed by an increase in political violence the only other place to go is down. 

The bipolarity of American politics has always interested me. The right and left are always at odds with one another, that staunch hatred for the other side resulting in the loss of life will always be interesting to me. Americans have been fighting each other for centuries because to the outside there seems to be no political middle ground that the two sides can reach. Political violence is never okay. The right to freedom of speech should always be exercised, but at what point does freedom of speech become hate speech? No one should be killed for their political beliefs. That is something I will stand by, however, when your “political beliefs” dehumanise and are at the expense of marginalized communities, the whole concept becomes a lot more complicated. Charlie Kirk was responsible for huge volumes of misinformation and downright disgusting rhetoric at the expense of marginalised communities. He had no empathy for anyone that wasn't a rich white man living in America. So why would you expect marginalised communities to carry empathy for him? 

At the end of the day he was a human being with a right to life— his life which he used to spew hateful ideologies that endangered lots of people. The same hateful ideologies which he pushed for, like the killing of palestinian children. The conversation that people should be having is on gun violence and how to stop it, not whether or not one should feel bad for Charlie. (have those convos tho, its a very interesting discussion about whether those who dehumanise should be dehumanised.) but there is a larger issue at hand here. As I said, the killing of Charlie Kirk is not an isolated event. 

This piece is not about how one should personally feel about Kirk, but about what his shooting reveals about America as a whole.

-k?!