{"id":17363,"date":"2025-09-12T15:46:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T15:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17363"},"modified":"2025-09-12T15:57:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T15:57:21","slug":"free-speech-freedom-from-violence-a-concern-after-charlie-kirk-assassination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17363","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech, Freedom From Violence a Concern After Charlie Kirk Assassination"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/free-speech-freedom-from-violence-a-concern-after-kirk-killing\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Free<\/p>\n

Political activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination at an Utah college on Wednesday has drawn a renewed call for security measures to protect individuals across college campuses and in public forums. The fatal shooting also raises concerns about freedom of speech on campuses and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Kirk, the founder of the nonprofit political organization Turning Point USA, was killed<\/a> on the first stop in his \u201cAmerican Comeback Tour,\u201d an event where he engaged attendees on political issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoin Charlie Kirk on campus for a lively discussion of Freedom and America! Don\u2019t agree with Charlie? Great, you go to the front of the line,\u201d a TPUSA social media<\/a> post reads.<\/p>\n

The reactions following Kirk\u2019s death have reverberated throughout the nation, with sympathies pouring in from elected officials<\/a> across the world.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told reporters on Thursday that she does not plan to host any public or outdoor events in the wake of Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply concerned for my safety,\u201d Mace said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if you are Republican or Democrat \u2013 any elected official across the country \u2013 if you are vocal, your life is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not be doing any outdoor events anytime soon, we will not be doing any public events anytime soon until we have a better handle on greater security controls,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n

Robert Sibley, special counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, said Kirk\u2019s shooting represented a threat to free speech on college campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis killing seems deliberately designed to dissuade people from engaging in that kind of open debate,\u201d Sibley said.<\/p>\n

Carrie Lukas, president of political advocacy group Independent Women, said Kirk\u2019s shooting highlights a recent trend of political violence and threats to freedom of speech in the United States that makes her concerned.<\/p>\n

In June, the Independent Women\u2019s Forum held its \u201cHer Game, Her Legacy\u201d bus tour that focused on transgender participation in sports. Lukas recalled incidents of vandalism and times when her organization\u2019s events have been disturbed by trespassing individuals or protesters.<\/p>\n

Victoria Coley, vice president of communications at Independent Women, said these events are becoming common for conservative political groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere tends to always be some level of threat that our security detail has to look into,\u201d Coley said. \u201cThat is something that groups who are center or center right are facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research from the Cato Institute<\/a> shows politically motivated violence accounted for 3,599 deaths in the United States between 1975 and today. Eighty-three percent of those murdered are attributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Lukas said she will be increasing security measures for future events the Independent Women\u2019s Forum hosts in the future. The increased focus on security might alienate some people from hearing her organization\u2019s messages, Lukas said, but she considers the precautionary measures to be more important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction to this can\u2019t be that we stop having public events,\u201d Lukas said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to have to create a bunch of barriers to people attending those events. There\u2019s going to be a lot more reticence to have events of this size, because it’s going to be a real big concern for everybody moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lukas said a larger conversation on freedom of speech is important to have in the wake of Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe absolutely have to stay committed to the right of terrible people to say terrible things,\u201d Lukas said. \u201cBut we have to have a very clear understanding of what is no longer protest and what is no longer a part of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free speech on college campuses, like where Kirk was, remains a contentious issue in the aftermath of mass protests across the country over the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n

Students held encampments<\/a> in public spaces, barricaded libraries<\/a> and vandalized buildings on colleges. Lukas said this violence, barricading and destroying of property crosses the line of free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour right to free speech stops well before you are ruining public spaces for others,\u201d Lukas said. \u201cWe can\u2019t indulge and excuse all bad behavior under the name of peaceful protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an apparent crackdown on protest behavior, around 80 students at Columbia University were reportedly<\/a> expelled or arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences,\u201d the university wrote in a May<\/a> statement.<\/p>\n

The university also made a deal<\/a> with the Trump administration to withhold pulling of federal funds in response to its handling of last year\u2019s protests and treatment of Jewish students on campus.<\/p>\n

Sibley said he expects college campuses to be more proactive in allowing students to express political views and hosting events like Kirk\u2019s in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cColleges and universities have spent a lot of time and effort over the last 30 years telling students about the value of tolerating people with different identities,\u201d Sibley said. \u201cIt’s time to put that level of effort into explaining why it is so important to be willing to listen to and engage with people who have viewpoints you find objectionable rather than finding some way to silence them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCampuses need to do everything they can to make it possible for people like Charlie Kirk to continue to come to campus and engage with others, and should dedicate whatever resources are necessary to make that possible. Murderers must not get a veto over who may speak on our nation’s campuses,\u201d Sibley added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/free-speech-freedom-from-violence-a-concern-after-kirk-killing\/ Political activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination at an Utah college…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":17365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17366,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17363\/revisions\/17366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}