Charlie Kirk’s Horrific Murder Is a Tragedy — and a Warning

On June 14, 2017, a shooter opened fire at the baseball field where colleagues and I were practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game. It was a horrible event. It could have been even worse. Though several were seriously injured, only the shooter died. We held him personally accountable for his actions.

However, since that day in 2017, both before and after Charlie Kirk’s murder on September 10, my perspective has evolved. We must look beyond the individual and ask deeper questions about our society, our values, and how overheated political rhetoric may be contributing to an environment where one, or many, could become convinced that Charlie’s death was justified. Charlie Kirk is just one of an increasing number of targets. We are seeing an environment where politics is regressing to a beastly form of human civilization. This is described in Federalist No. 1 as being dependent “on accident and force.”