America has its first free speech martyr, Charlie Kirk. Martyrs to free speech are common in totalitarian regimes—such as Russia prior to the fall of Communism—or in corrupt oligarchies—such as Russia after the fall of Communism—but they have not been an American phenomenon—until now.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a college event, allegedly by Tyler Robinson of Utah. The 31-year-old came of age in the Obama-era Tea Party protest movement, which reaffirmed America’s founding principles, chief among them the wholehearted commitment to the First Amendment. Kirk, accordingly, dedicated his life to restoring freedom of expression in the United States.

During the Cold War, American leftists positioned themselves as proponents of the First Amendment. They romanticized figures like Mario Savio of UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement. They browbeat university administrators across the nation to hire communist faculty. It was a situational move designed to sneak Marxism into college campuses under the guise of constitutional liberties and then shut the door on diverging viewpoints.

Charlie Kirk, by contrast, made it his life’s goal to bring open debate to American college campuses. He never shut the doors on divergent viewpoints; he preferred to question them.

Kirk’s assassination terrifies conservatives because he wasn’t a president like JFK, Ford, Reagan, or Trump—or even a candidate for office. He didn’t have his finger on the nuclear button, or the ability to make decisions for the country—the types of things that put a bullseye on a man’s forehead. Unlike MLK or Malcolm X, he wasn’t a leader of a movement with specific goals—in their case, racial liberation. Kirk was a media figure, or a professional opinion-maker.

For centuries, to be brave in America, to exercise free speech, meant having to reckon with social pressure—not risk untimely death.

To be able to speak one’s mind without jeopardizing safety is an essential part of being an American, even if, in recent years, riotous crowds have threatened free expression. The left happily cancelled its opponents and rioted, but stopped short of murder. So-called cancellings have been vicious, but they were only intended to ruin an opponent’s life—not take it.

Americans sometimes lose their lives for speaking their mind, but this usually happens within ethnic communities or is tied to foreign governments. The journalist Chauncey Bailey, for instance, was gunned down in Oakland, California, shortly after writing an exposé on a local Black Muslim group. Five Vietnamese-American journalists were murdered in the 1980s in what is believed to be an extension of the foreign civil war.

We’ve foiled Iran’s plots to assassinate dissidents living abroad, most prominent among them Masih Alinejad. In 1990, Al Qaida executed rabbi Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League and a proponent of Arab transfer. In 1976, Don Bolles, a journalist investigating organized crime in Arizona, was killed by a car bomb, and in 1984, talk show host Alan Berg, critical of far-right extremism, was assassinated by Neo-Nazis.

Berg’s murder was a manifestation of longstanding domestic tensions, but it was the work of a marginalized group. By contrast, Kirk appears to have been murdered by a centered minority—Robinson is a trans ally.  

Trans ideology has not only lashed out violently but has achieved institutional dominance, which distinguishes it from earlier verities of American terror. The Weather Underground and other radical anti-war groups hurled Molotov Cocktails at ROTC facilities and high-profile targets, but never enjoyed respectability and had few supporters among the elites.

Politicians long accepted that elections were won by appearing central, not fringe. Barack Obama, however, signaled a transition with his violent metaphor: “If they bring a knife to a fight, we’ll bring a gun.” The public mood went downhill from there.

In 2018, commenting on the Trump Administration’s policies towards illegal migrants, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quipped, “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country.” And in 2020, when Antifa and BLM ransacked American cities with little pushback from local authorities, Democrat Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris advised:

[E]veryone beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that on both levels. They’re not going to let up and they should not and we should not.

Trans culture appears to be particularly prone to violence—most recent mass shootings have been perpetrated by individuals undergoing so-called transitioning. Trans-identified individuals and allies have been after TPUSA for quite some time. In 2023, Riley Gaines, the TPUSA speaker and athlete who had to compete against a biological male, had to be ushered to a safe room and escorted by police during a riot on the SFSU campus. It takes courage to continue showing up to campus events despite never-ending threats.

Trantifa types assume a right to violence because everyone around them is a Nazi. They ingest this idea—often at the hands of their professors—early in life. Right now, the president of the largest teachers’ union is promoting her new book Why Fascists Fear Teachers, and by fascists, she means middle Americans.

Robinson came out of a culture that viewed political opponents as sworn enemies. He very casually inscribed his bullet casings with Antifa memes Hey fascist! Catch! and Bella ciao—the latter after the World War II-era Italian partisan song.

Robinson was not a government agent, but he subscribed to ideologies backed by the establishment. He might have been a lone wolf, but he was sanctioned by a prominently positioned faction.

Kirk was, ultimately, slain for speaking the plain truth that men are men and women are women. It’s something that everyone recognizes, including the LGBTQ among us—even if they suppress these thoughts. If a renowned debater can be murdered for voicing such common sense, anyone is fair game. It doesn’t matter if a speaker has a platform like TPUSA or is just an average man with opinions.

Assassinated during a debate on a college campus, Charlie Kirk fell doing what he loved and what he believed was his mission. President Trump’s designation of Antifa as a terrorist organization may chill the murderous extremism, or Kirk may become first in a long line of free speech martyrs.

Ultimately, the American people hold their country’s future; If they channel the outrage to restore the spirit of free debate in this country, Charlie Kirk will not have died in vain.