On this much, Americans on both sides of the partisan divide can agree: The gun violence must stop.
This week it was Charlie Kirk, co-founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, who was shot and killed as he spoke at Utah Valley University. As has been noted, in June, it was Melissa Hortman, Speaker Emerita of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was shot alongside her husband in their family home. The same gunman shot state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, who both survived. Last year, it was very nearly President Donald Trump, who was wounded by a bullet while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania.
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This list goes on and on, with victims hailing from both the left and the right.
Many will blame the extreme partisanship that has taken over this country, the hate-fueled discourse that now passes as political dialogue. And they will be right to.
But we cannot ignore the other factor staring us in the face: the normalization of guns. Because while words may sometimes hurt, they never kill. Guns do—and those bent on destruction know it.
Read more: Gabby Giffords: I Mourn for Charlie Kirk’s Family
The presence of guns in nearly every sphere of American life can be traced back to lawmakers. Thirty-eight states do not regulate the open carry of guns, which means they can be worn on the hip or slung across the back. Twenty-nine states allow people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. And in Utah, where Kirk was murdered, lawmakers recently changed the law to clarify that people can openly carry guns on college campuses, including students as young as 18 years old.
To be clear, when tallying the human cost of these guns-everywhere laws, political assassinations make up a tiny sliver. Nearly 46,000 Americans die by gun violence every year, and 97,000 more are wounded. And it’s young people who are bearing the heaviest burden, with gun violence now the leading cause of death for children and teens in America.
If yearly statistics feel too abstract, just zoom in on the 24 hours before Kirk was killed. In South Carolina, a man allegedly shot his ex-girlfriend multiple times in a Walmart parking lot. In Missouri, a 10-year-old child was shot in the thigh by stray gunfire while sleeping. And at Evergreen High School in Colorado, two students were wounded by a classmate wielding a handgun, who then fatally shot himself. This was the seventh K-12 shooting in an academic year that has barely started. Just last month, two children were murdered at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis while praying on the first day of school.
Read more: The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Political Violence Haunting America
Only in America does an assassination share a split screen with a school shooting. What would shatter any other nation has become our daily broadcast. That’s the price we pay for prioritizing the Second Amendment above all else. And it doesn’t have to be this way—we can protect gun rights while also protecting our families.
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about ideology. President Donald Trump and Congress must come together and enact comprehensive gun laws to stop the carnage, which will protect public figures and children alike.
Tragically, Kirk’s wife and children have now joined the club no one wants to belong to, and one that has no partisan divide: gun violence survivors. Until we take action to keep guns away from people who have no business owning them, that club will continue to grow.