In the hours after an assassin ended the life of Charlie Kirk, voices across the political spectrum came out condemning political violence. From Donald Trump to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a host of politicians, public officials, and pundits rightfully declared that political violence has no place in our nation, and that it must come to an end.
At the same time, folks scrolling through their social media feed likely ran across posts that celebrated Kirk’s death, either overtly or through feigned apathy. Some of those posts undoubtably came from bots, others from foreign entities intent on deepening our partisan divide. But some of them were unquestionably organic as well, because there’s a significant number of Americans who see their political opposites as an existential enemy that must be eliminated; not just their ideology, but their literal hearts and minds.
At POLITICO, reporters Adam Wren and Holly Otterbein wonder if “America can unwind its Gordian knot of political violence?”
The outpouring of condolences from Democrats over Kirk’s death differed in tone from the reaction among some to another recent high-profile act of violence: the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thompson’s death triggered a widespread online reaction and, in some corners of social media, even glorification of accused murderer Luigi Mangione.
At the time, Ocasio-Cortez said, “of course, we don’t want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents,” while arguing that the response indicated a “mass bubbling of resentment around the precarity that people have been living with” and saying “I think for people who are surprised, it’s a wake-up call for how much of this exists in our society.”
Oh, there’s been glorification on social media of Kirk’s assassin too, and Wren and Otterbein are willfully blind if they haven’t seen it. And Kirk’s assassination has already been co-opted by politicians and political figures as well. Ocasio-Cortez’s statement after Kirk’s death was announced demanded “this source of gun violence and political violence must end,” while gun control groups like Brady and activists like Fred Guttenberg immediately sought to use Kirk’s death to promote more restrictions on our right to keep and bear arms.
If we’re trying to bring down the temperature, cracking down on our Second (or First) Amendment rights isn’t the answer. That would only inflame tensions and cause further erosion of trust in our political institutions. So what can be done?
We heard a lot of calls to find common ground yesterday, but that seems like an impossibility when the two major political parties are so far apart on almost every issue. If we look beyond politics, though, I think we can at least recognize the humanity that exists in our ideological opposites. When my wife died, I heard from several gun control activists with whom I’ve disagreed vociferously over the years. A few of them offered boilerplate expressions of condolences, but the others expressed genuine concern and sympathy for myself and our kids.
Here at Bearing Arms, I don’t think we’ve demonized or dehumanized those anti-gun activists who are motivated by the loss of a loved one. I feel as much sympathy for Fred Guttenberg and Manuel Oliver as I do for Ryan Petty and Andrew Pollack, and though I absolutely despise the efforts by Guttenberg and Oliver’s to dismantle our right to keep and bear arms, I don’t despise them. Like them, I’m a father who’s lost a child. I understand that pain, even if I don’t agree at all with how they’re going about trying to keep others from experiencing that pain in the future.
Look, I know that there are people who absolutely hate me for what I believe. I heard from some gun control activists who offered sympathy and support after Miss E died, but I also had several messages from strangers who reveled in my grief. I even had one who said her death was divine punishment for my Second Amendment activism. I heard the same thing when my oldest son died three years ago.
I could hate them right back. It might even be good for my career to do so, at least if I engaged them publicly, given that so much of our media consumption (whether social, broadcast, or print) relies on generating an emotional response from us, and anger is one of the easiest emotions to manipulate and monetize. But it would be bad for my soul. Instead of spending my time and energy reacting and responding to those who hate me, I choose to devote that time and attention to the people I love and the causes I hold dear.
We don’t have to be blind to that partisan hatred. I’m well aware of its existence, which is one of the reasons why I will never stop fighting for our right to armed self-defense. But we don’t have to actively contribute to that hatred either. Hate is a choice. I choose to disagree with my ideological opposites instead of hating them as individuals.
We should also acknowledge that political violence can come from both sides of the political spectrum. I do believe it is more common on the left than it is on the right, and I don’t recall any conservatives cheering on the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and the wounding of state Senator John Hoffman as we’ve seen from some quarters of the left when Kirk and United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson were murdered. The suspect arrested in those crimes certainly hasn’t been lionized and turned into a folk hero by the right like Luigi Mangioni has been in some quarters on the left. But even if individuals on the left side of the political spectrum have been responsible for the lions share of political violence as of late, liberals and progressives don’t have a monopoly on political violence, and it does us as a nation no good to pretend political violence only can only come from one side of the political spectrum.
On a pragmatic level, a personal response to political violence should include taking steps to protect yourself from harm. To me, that includes exercising my right to keep and bear arms; not to inflict harm on my political opposites, but to defend myself and my loved ones from anyone who harbors enough hate in their heart to try to kill me for my beliefs. The right to keep and bear arms is even more important during those times when our nation has experienced social stress and political upheaval, and we’re definitely living through one of those moments today.
I don’t think we can come back from this moment of political tension, but I do believe we can get through it. And, as individuals, I believe the best way to do that is to continue advocating for what we believe, to keep exercising the freedoms others want to strip from us, and to spend our time and energy on the people we love while recognizing the humanity of those we disagree with. That won’t stop every act of political violence, but will at least prevent us from becoming part of the problem.
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