{"id":219219,"date":"2025-09-11T21:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219219\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T21:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T21:56:10","slug":"charlie-kirk-shooting-reignites-campus-free-speech-issues-in-trump-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219219\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Kirk shooting reignites campus free-speech issues in Trump era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk<\/a> at a Utah college event has put a spotlight on tensions over free speech at universities, where conservatives, including President Trump, have said campuses are intolerant of right-wing speakers and thought.<\/p>\n

Kirk, a Trump ally widely credited for revitalizing Republican movements among college students, was speaking before thousands at Utah Valley University<\/a> when he was shot in the neck. The event was similar to dozens he has held over the years \u2014 including at UCLA, USC and Cal State campuses. Kirk typically would sit under a tent to debate attendees who challenged his right-wing views on immigration, gender identity, criminal policy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, abortion and other hot-button subjects.<\/p>\n

As a conservative provocateur, his style and beliefs frequently drew campus protests and petitions from liberal students and faculty seeking to cancel his appearances. The Utah event was no exception. An open letter before his engagement asked the university to reevaluate \u201cthe decision to allow Charlie Kirk to speak\u201d because he was against \u201cinclusivity and unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Utah Valley University leaders said they wanted the campus to be a place \u201cwhere ideas \u2014 popular or controversial \u2014 can be exchanged freely, energetically, and civilly\u201d and where \u201cfree expression thrives and all voices are respected.\u201d They said the university \u201cdoes not take official positions on political, social, or cultural controversies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooting comes as colleges face harsh repercussions from the Trump administration over volatile and widespread pro-Palestinian protests last year. At the time, university leaders struggled to draw the line between free speech and unacceptable behavior under campus codes of conduct. <\/p>\n

Left-wing activists have also faced violence for their speech, including an attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA last year. Trump has accused universities of being intolerant of conservative philosophies and demanded more conservative faculty hires \u2014 but he has also faced criticism for pushing universities<\/a> to restrict liberal free speech.<\/p>\n

In statements and interviews Wednesday, politicians, activists and college conservatives called for greater tolerance of right-wing speech at universities and elsewhere. In recent years, guests invited by Republican clubs or chapters of Turning Point USA<\/a> \u2014 the group that Kirk led \u2014 have routinely faced protests, event cancellations and threats at campuses across the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated. And that\u2019s what he does,\u201d said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who called the shooting a \u201cpolitical assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The manhunt for the shooter continued Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Kamy Akhavan, managing director for the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, said in an email that \u201cwe should be deeply troubled when anyone chooses to silence opinions with violence.\u201d <\/p>\n

Universities, he said, need to have prominent liberal and conservative speakers to challenge students\u2019 ideologies. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday much of our educational system has steered away from discussions of current events and politics for fear of institutional, external, or even personal retribution,\u201d Akhavan said. \u201cWe have become really bad at communicating over the things that matter most because we just don\u2019t talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk\u2019s death has prompted an outpouring from campus liberals in addition to Republican youths.<\/p>\n

In a statement Wednesday, the College Democrats of America said: \u201cWe convey our thoughts and prayers to his loved ones. We, alongside many, are mourning his death and condemn political and gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

College Republicans of America said that \u201ccampuses must be places where arguments are answered with better arguments \u2014 not bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe college Republican movement won\u2019t be deterred by this at all,\u201d said Martin Bertao, the organization\u2019s national president and a junior at UC Berkeley. \u201cWe will be emboldened.\u201d Bertao said he felt there was a \u201ccrusade\u201d by college students to \u201csilence people they don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Survey finds more opposition to campus speech<\/p>\n

A national survey released the day before the shooting gives weight to the views of both Akhavan and Bertao. <\/p>\n

The poll, conducted by the free speech watchdog group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression<\/a> and College Pulse<\/a>, found a majority of students have a low tolerance for controversial ideas.<\/p>\n

One in 3 students also said that violence was \u201crarely\u201d acceptable to halt campus speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents continue to show low tolerance for controversial speakers, and troublingly, more believe it\u2019s acceptable to shout down a speaker, block access to events or even resort to violence to silence campus speech than ever before,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Mary Corey, a lecturer at UCLA\u2019s history department who studies American social movements, said Kirk\u2019s death disturbed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish it hadn\u2019t happened \u2014 it makes me cringe, it makes me unhappy, it makes me more afraid,\u201d Corey said.<\/p>\n

Kirk regularly toured California colleges<\/p>\n

Since Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA 13 years ago, the organization has grown to include more than 3,500 chapters across the country, many on college campuses. Before his death, Kirk\u2019s \u201cprove me wrong table\u201d tour was scheduled to continue at Colorado State University and more than a dozen campuses from Minnesota to Virginia.<\/p>\n

In March, he appeared at USC and Cal State Northridge, where promoters handed out \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d and \u201c47\u201d hats in support of Trump. At those events, Kirk challenged diversity, equity and inclusion programs and affirmative action.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffirmative action by definition will elevate race-based type acceptance or hiring quotas above excellence-based,\u201d Kirk said to a crowd of hundreds at USC, according to a report in Annenberg Media<\/a>. \u201cWe believe that only merit should matter when you have college admissions, or when you hire people into corporations that skin color should have no bearing in such admissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk spoke to hundreds on May 1 at UC San Diego, and more than 1,000 attendees in a sea of red MAGA shirts and hats on May 5 at Cal State Long Beach. Both events drew minor protests and clashes, but no significant violence, according to campus news reports. <\/p>\n

At a May 9 appearance at UC Riverside, he debated attendees over topics including abortion rights and his support for Israel; a punk rock performance in protest of Kirk\u2019s event was shut down for violating campus policies, according to the student-run Highlander<\/a> newspaper.<\/p>\n

Many found Kirk\u2019s words to be offensive<\/p>\n

Kirk\u2019s opponents argued that he contradicted his free speech support by encouraging intolerance of liberal ideas. Kirk ran Professor Watchlist, a website listing hundreds of \u201cradical professors\u201d \u2014 grouped by topics including \u201cfeminism,\u201d \u201cLGBTQ\u201d and \u201cdiversity\u201d \u2014 that has led to harassment and doxxing.<\/p>\n

Opponents also accused Kirk of promoting violence.<\/p>\n

In 2022, when a man was arrested for beating Rep. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s husband with a hammer, Kirk called for an \u201camazing patriot\u201d to bail the man out of jail and become a \u201cmidterm hero.\u201d During a different event, Kirk described the Bible verse Leviticus 20:13, which says men who have sex with men should be stoned, as \u201cGod\u2019s perfect law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Killing Charlie Kirk was horrific,\u201d prominent transgender journalist Erin Reed wrote Thursday<\/a> on her Substack. \u201cBut we also must not sanitize the memory of a man who wished harm on those he disagreed with, and who spread a message of hate to anyone willing to listen or pay him to so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative campus visitors face challenges<\/p>\n

Conservatives have long faced campus pushback in California.<\/p>\n

In 2017, during Trump\u2019s first term, right-wing personality Milo Yiannopoulos\u2019 appearances set off violent protests that shut down events<\/a> at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. <\/p>\n

The next year, the Bruin Republicans group canceled a Yiannopoulos event at UCLA titled \u201c10 Things I Hate About Mexico.\u201d The group said it called off the engagement because it \u201cpolarized the leadership of the organization.\u201d And then-UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said he was glad, because the subject was \u201ccontrary to our values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Shapiro, another popular conservative media figure, has also faced opposition over the years for his events at California campuses, among them UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. But the engagements were not canceled, including an October 2024 speech at UCLA that prompted extra security.<\/p>\n

For Kirk\u2019s Utah event, security had also been a concern. Campus police deployed six officers there, according to initial reports. Kirk also had his own private security detail. At least 3,000 people converged in the university quad, an outdoor bowl-type courtyard. It\u2019s believed that the shooter targeted Kirk from the roof of a building.<\/p>\n

Eli Tsives, a pro-Israel student activist at UCLA who attended a Kirk event in 2023, said he mourned Kirk, whose death he said will motivate students to speak up on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to become louder and more outspoken,\u201d Tsives said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to do it for him because that\u2019s what he dedicated his life to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at a Utah college event has put a spotlight on tensions over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":219220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,9361,19719,31309,15784,4446,2576,6397,29536,2961,224,5337,3546,6566,1807,2501,4280,8572,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-219219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-campus","11":"tag-charlie-kirk","12":"tag-college-student","13":"tag-conservative","14":"tag-death","15":"tag-event","16":"tag-fatal-shooting","17":"tag-free-speech","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-people","22":"tag-place","23":"tag-president-trump","24":"tag-ucla","25":"tag-university","26":"tag-violence","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115187900978685069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}