Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are ‘worth it’ to save Second Amendment

While addressing a rally at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, right-wing activist and key ally of US President Donald Trump. Charlie Kirk was shot dead on Wednesday. The conservative activist who was the founder of Turning Point USA was seated in a tent, speaking at the event, when a shot hit him in the neck, triggering major chaos.

He was rushed away to the hospital, and it was eventually confirmed by Trump himself that Kirk had died in the fatal attack. “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erika and family. Charlie, we love you!” the President wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

While Republicans and Democrats alike condemned the recent rise of political violence and gun violence in the country, Kirk had a controversial take on the matter. The irony of it all is that he was answering one of the students’ questions about gun violence when he was shot in the neck.

What was Charlie Kirk’s take on gun violence?

Back in 2023, in the wake of a shooting at Christian Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, that led to the death of three children and three adults, Kirk said that gun deaths are “unfortunately worth it”, describing it as a price to pay for the preservation of Second Amendment rights in the United States of America.

It is important to note that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms. “Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty…So we need to be very clear that you’re not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. You could significantly reduce them through having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools,” Kirk had said at a panel discussion.

Charlie Kirk: “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment”https://t.co/uoM6TqnAgJ pic.twitter.com/mbJSa2Lzmi

— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 6, 2023

“You will never live in a society where you have an armed citizenry, and you won’t have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It’s drivel. But I am – I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth having a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a completely alternate universe,” he continued.

When asked about school shootings, Kirk also supported the idea of having armed guards at schools. “How do you stop school shootings? I don’t know. How did we stop shootings at baseball games? Because we have armed guards outside of baseball games. That’s why. How did we stop all the shootings at airports? We have armed guards outside of airports. How do we stop all the shootings at banks? We have armed guards outside of banks. How did we stop all the shootings at gun shows? Notice there’s not a lot of mass shootings at gun shows; there are all these guns. Because everyone’s armed. If our money and our sporting events and our aeroplanes have armed guards, why don’t our children?”

The irony of it all is the fact that at the Wednesday event, Kirk was answering questions on mass shootings. “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” he was asked, videos circulating online show. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responded before he was shot on one side of his neck.