Political commentator and CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and political commentator, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed on September 10. The political left and right have responded to Kirk’s death; however, Dickinson alumni have their own thoughts on the shooting. Gracie Kummer ’25 graduated as a double major in History and Educational Studies. She was president of Kappa Delta Pi honor society and identifies as left-leaning. Caleb Chastain ’25 majored in Law & Policy and Political Science. He was the president of Mock Trial and identifies as right-leaning.
Chastain said the event occurred during a class he was in. When he left that class “everyone” around him was shocked. His initial thoughts were “ohh crap that’s not good.” Prior to the shooting, Chastain had a neutral opinion on Kirk but added “as polarized as our country is right now, the absolute last thing we need is a political commentator getting shot and killed.” Kummer said that she was shocked, but unsure how to feel. She had assumed that it was a non-fatal accident. She added: “On one hand, I don’t believe anyone should die for their beliefs; violence is never the answer. On the other hand, I couldn’t ignore the reality that his death meant one less platform for the kind of hateful rhetoric he regularly promoted.” Both alumni agreed that political violence in the US is escalating.
When asked about her initial thoughts on Turning Point USA, Kummer explained the inconsistent marketing that TPUSA uses: “It promotes free markets, limited government, and traditional values. In practice, though, it has built a vast media presence around divisive talking points and campaigns that many people, myself included, see as misinformation and as openly hostile to LGBTQ people, immigrants, and people of color. Kummer explained how she is preparing to be an educator, and sees firsthand how damaging Kirk’s rhetoric can be; “TPUSA is a highly effective yet harmful vehicle for normalizing prejudice.” Chastain shared that he did not think about TPUSA much prior to the shooting. He added, “I had generally seen some clips of Charlie Kirk doing some impromptu debates, some stuff that I agree with, some stuff that I didn’t, but I guess I appreciated that he was engaging in some conversation even if I thought he was doing a little poorly at times.”
When asked about their thoughts on social media’s response to the event, Kummer expressed how she was overwhelmed because it seemed as though the head of the state was shot, not a political commentator. She expressed how the common theme in the news was that “no one should be killed for their beliefs, and that we need gun reform but at the same time, there was a school shooting that barely registered in the news cycle.” Kummer expressed how almost no national coverage wrote about a black student hanging from a tree the following day after Kirk was shot. She added: “It seemed as though white supremacists and their allies suddenly decided to care about gun violence and political violence because someone who looked like them and believed what they believed was the victim.” Both alumni reiterated that no one should be killed for their beliefs. Chastain expressed disappointment from both the left and the right: “I had a couple of people I’ve known since high school post stuff like fascist asshole down like just unabashedly celebrating it which I thought was disgusting, and then of course there was a lot of people also just trying to score political points with it.” Chastain clarified that he was disappointed with the mainstream right for trying to score political points, and the non-mainstream left for celebrating his death. “Mainstream leftist intellectual thinkers and politicians denounced political violence… and then normal people on the right were taking an appropriate somber approach.”
Both alumni shared their final thoughts. Chastain shared:
“The more clips I’ve seen of Kirk over the past week and a half,the more I’ve kind of liked him. I keep seeing these clips of him just being respectful to someone who is screaming at him or knocking his hat off and being rude to him. I think he did at times a really good job of turning the other cheek and being very respectful and kind to people who some would say didn’t deserve it. I think he at times obviously did a bit of a poor job in in trying to take polarization down but based on what I’ve seen in the past week seemed like he was truly trying most of the time to put in a good faith effort to like have real conversations with people rather than just like demonizing people like a lot of media people on both sides do.” Kummer shared,
“One comment I saw online really stuck with me was ‘it wasn’t the bullet that killed him, it was his mouth that did.’ Kirk built his career on spreading blatant homophobia, transphobia, and racism. That doesn’t make his death acceptable, but it underscores the environment he helped create. People were rightly concerned for his children and their grief, and yes, that is tragic. But children die in schools almost every day in this country. What are their parents supposed to tell their surviving children? That their brother or sister was murdered just for going to school? Working in public schools, I live with that reality every day. I’m not immune to it. And I want us as a country to stop offering selective outrage and “thoughts and prayers” only when the victim matches our politics. We need consistent, meaningful action on gun violence and hate that values every life, not just the lives of people with a big platform.
