The Gun of the Hand

Charlie Kirk was a human being with a wife and two children. Therefore, his death deserves to be mourned, the same as any other human being who died in any act of violence, especially those who died by gun violence. Yesterday, another human being died in a school shooting in Evergreen, Colorado. Two others were seriously injured. The dead and injured from that shooting should also be mourned.

We can appreciate Kirk’s humanity while also believing the following:

1. Kirk held some terrible views. He said a number of awful things, including that it was “unfortunate” that some killings happen in order to preserve the 2nd Amendment.

2. The humanity of some other recent victims of politically motivated gun violence was not respected by MAGA. Specifically, the leader of MAGA, Trump, used that murder as an opportunity to score political points against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

3. We don’t have to pretend that Kirk argued in good faith, as Gavin Newsom did (again showing his bad political instincts). Newsom also ordered flags to half-mast in honor of Kirk.

   

4. We can call out MAGA’s propensity for violent rhetoric, as Jay Pritzker did, again showing his good political instincts.

5. We certainly don’t need to apologize for statements that call out Kirk, as MSNBC did. Kirk said hateful things and unfortunately in the climate of violence in this country, those hateful words can spark a hateful response.

5. We can highlight the awful things Fox hosts and others say.

6. We certainly can talk about gun violence, including the fact that concealed and open carry is allowed on campuses in Utah.

7. We don’t have to sit down and worry about the politics of the person who shot Kirk. Someone who will go and kill someone is generally a deeply disturbed person, and recent history has shown that their political beliefs are pretty scattershot and not to be taken seriously. The important point is that someone with bad judgment and scattered thinking got hold of a gun and killed someone — perhaps those people should be kept away from guns.

8. We don’t have to tolerate this from our supposedly “liberal” media outlets and supposedly “liberal” columnists. Kirk’s “moxie” included celebrating the assault on Paul Pelosi and running a site called “professorwatch” to identify wrongthink among academics.

9. We certainly can be disgusted by this.

10. We can also note that Josh Shapiro ordered flags to half-mast when we think about our next vote in the Presidential primary.

11. We can wonder if the wholesale reassignment of federal agents to ICE is the reason that Kirk’s killer hasn’t been apprehended yet.

In short, contra the tone policing I saw on BlueSky shortly after the shooting, we can say anything that Fox or any other right-wing outlet would say. We just can’t do what they’d do, which is to deny Kirk’s humanity. That’s a bridge too far.