DC Edit | US Gun Violence Turns Political

A wave of political violence in the United States recently claimed a prominent victim in Charlie Kirk who founded a youth movement that played a role in swaying young voters to the Conservative right in the last election.

The chilling assassination, with a single gunshot from 185 metres into the neck of the speaker at a university campus, suggests a high level of marksmanship. As US President Donald Trump, who survived a similar attempt on his life by millimetres when he was on the campaign trail, and his deputy J.D. Vance grieve over the loss of a favoured acolyte, even as the FBI hunt for the killer may have succeeded.

The assassination says a lot about an unending cycle of violence in the US where the Second Amendment is sacred to gun owners. But it is the First Amendment, which enshrines the right to free speech, that is under attack in this very political killing. That this is happening across ideology, with members of the right, moderates and the left targeted in the last couple of years, is illustrative of a far deeper malaise in which there is growing intolerance in the political culture to different views from their own.

Not everyone may have agreed with all that Kirk stood up and argued for but, in a democracy, he had a right to say what he believed in without fearing for his life or personal safety. This killing is to be seen as a dangerous trend in which polarisation is increasingly leading to attacks on political opponents. There is a loss of humanity in the way in which such actions are leading to a diminishing of empathy in which politicians are becoming easy prey.

It is also a reflection of how society may be evolving that some opponents of Kirk’s political philosophy should be suffused with schadenfreude at his demise. Clearly, such actions and reactions over targeted killings will lead to a demeaning of politics as much as it injures the right to free speech and expression.

It was Voltaire who wrote — “I wholly disapprove of what you say and will defend to the death your right to say it.” Sadly, there are too few who subscribe to that line of thinking in today’s conflicted world, more so in politics that is getting to be too mean for anyone’s liking. And democracy stands weakened with every such act.