On Sept. 10, 2025, at 11:20 a.m., Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, witnessed the shooting of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, Christian founder and president of Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” stated Donald Trump, President of the United States, in a speech transcribed by worldwide media organization TIME.
Born in 1993, Kirk founded TPUSA in 2012 at the age of 18 with co-founder Bill Montgomery, a Tea Party activist, after being rejected from the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York. A tax-exempt and non-profit organization, TPUSA focuses on informing students to advocate for limited government, financial accountability and a free-enterprise system in which competition is unconstrained.
TPUSA representatives visit various high schools and college campuses to promote conservative ideals, aiming to engage with incoming voters. The organization’s “Club America” section aims to draw attention to political topics within the teen audience. Kirk would directly interact with college students on his “Prove Me Wrong” and “American Comeback Tour” events, providing a mic for anyone who volunteered. Clips of these interactions would be posted for media outreach within the online community. Not only did Kirk and his organization attempt to attract young voters to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, but he also desired to share his biblical faith with the youth of America.
Followers, along with many others, mourn with the Kirk family after his assassination on Wednesday, Sept. 10. Kirk was immediately rushed to the Timpanogos Regional Hospital by security personnel and pronounced dead shortly after. Trump announced on Sept. 11, 2025, that he would posthumously award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk and ordered flags to be flown half-staff through Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025.
TPUSA, Kirk’s organization, stated that his mission was to use “the power of argument and good-faith debate to find the truth and guide people towards, if not agreement, then at least mutual understanding.” Ironically, Kirk was engaging with the audience in a “Prove Me Wrong” TPUSA event before a sniper from a campus rooftop shot him.
“He fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people,” Trump said. He then went on to claim that Kirk stood “for truth and freedom… so respected by youth.” Kirk believed that Americans as citizens have the right to speak freely and exchange ideas. The death of Kirk is a prime example of a situation that causes deep controversy, frightening individuals who feel they do not have a safe society in which to voice their ideas.
While Kirk gained many young followers, there are many who disagree with his political standpoints. Levi Coovert, an Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Evergreen, who once debated with Kirk on his “American Comeback Tour,” said that, “His stances on immigration, foreign policy, gun control and climate change could not be further from my own.” Coovert explained his disagreement with Kirk’s attitude in addressing controversial topics, but stated that it “does not justify the reactions I saw from thousands of social-media users who mocked him and laughed at his wounds … Kirk may have held polarizing opinions, but like every other American, he had the right to free speech.”
Statistics gathered by the Pew Research Center rank speech freedoms in various countries, revealing that over 80 percent of Americans believe they are free to say what they want in their country. This shows that among Americans, the majority of people feel that they have some measure of freedom of speech, and less than 20 percent view that freedom as limited.
However, data collected by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) juxtapose this. In a survey ranking colleges for 2026, over one-third of college students in the nation believed that violence to prevent individuals with opposing views from speaking on campus is acceptable. The survey also revealed that over two-thirds of students accept shouting down speakers to silence their beliefs, and almost one-fourth regularly refrain from voicing their personal beliefs with other students. Furthermore, the results showed that more than one-fourth of students often withheld from classroom conversations, and about one-fourth believe it is highly probable that their campus administrators would defend the freedom of speech for a speaker.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered $100,000 as a reward for the arrest and conviction of the shooter. Bill Ackman, a billionaire businessman, committed $1 million in addition to the FBI’s reward and another $1 million to establish an endowment for the Kirk family. Thirty-three hours into the manhunt, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson confessed to his father and was arrested as a suspect for the murder of Kirk.
Despite all the controversy, opposing beliefs and all that follows, several things remain true: Kirk endeavored to educate younger generations by traveling across the U.S., while also promoting Christianity and conservative ideals that were controversial to many. Following Kirk’s death, there has been increased interest in TPUSA, the freedoms it supports and the topics he addressed.
Editor’s Note: On Sept. 19, 2025, both houses of Congress passed a resolution to create a “National Day for Remembrance” for Charlie Kirk that will be observed on the conservative activist’s birthday, Oct. 14. There was a unanimous vote in the Senate, while more fraction presented itself in the House: 22 Democrats and 4 Republicans declined to vote and 96 Democrats were in direct opposition. Kirk’s memorial service followed on the morning of Sept. 21, 2025, in a suburb of Phoenix, Ariz.
