A few weeks ago, activist Charlie Kirk was shot during an event on a school campus in Utah. The booming response has ranged widely; the right-wing holds the belief that the event was a ploy to relieve them of their guns, while the left-wing views it as something potentially orchestrated to distract from the recent proof of Trump purchasing a woman with a photo and receipt. The one thing that remains consistent in all parties, however, is the sympathy, as well as the irony, which begs the question: Does the outrage at Kirk’s death lean more towards selective empathy or victim blaming?

Charlie Kirk’s contributions and insights to America’s political climate can be traced back to 2012, when he was 18 and started his career strong by co-founding Turning Point USA (TPUSA). This organization essentially promotes conservative values on high school and college/university campuses. He’s additionally known for his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, and his numerous debates that have trickled across a variety of social media platforms to boot.

In a 2024 Jubilee Debate, Kirk made clear that, given a hypothetical scenario in which his young daughter was raped and consequently pregnant with her rapists’ child, he would risk her life to ensure she’d deliver the baby rather than have an abortion. Holding to this ideology, he later stated, when asked to clarify if he was comparing abortion to the Holocaust, “I am, in fact, it’s worse. It’s worse.” Furthermore, this constant plea on “pro-life” is challenged when Kirk went so far as to openly mock survivors of school shootings as well as defend both the ownership of guns and gun violence by saying, “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”

Kirk’s take on gun violence inevitably leads to the immense irony found in his death. Along with this comes a flurry of sympathizers from all angles, as well, preaching non-violence and focusing purely on his death when delivering messages of peace and kindness. However, these are the same individuals who either ignore or don’t bother to look into the unending and oftentimes suffocating flood of tragedies and deaths in and around our country. In 2025, there have been up to 146 school shootings recorded so far, yet close to none have made it to mainstream media. A few weeks ago, on August 28th, a man was killed in Jakarta via a military vehicle during a protest. Not to mention the ongoing massacre in Gaza, which has garnered less public sympathy and action over the past week compared to the death of a man who supported and justified gun violence. The White House had all American flags on public, military, and naval property flown at half-staff in honor of Kirk, from the 10th to the 14th, as opposed to the multitude of other victims of recent violent crime.

When events such as this occur, those like Kirk with social advantage as a white man are pushed into the spotlight, pressing tragedies get brushed off because of it. As a general rule, peace over violence is always preferable. Nevertheless, people cannot go around preaching idealistic messages of harmony while simultaneously overlooking the very real issues that are unarguably more relevant and prominent in our lives today. Picking and choosing between who deserves empathy is a fault in and of itself, especially when community efforts blow up over Charlie Kirk, a defender of gun deaths, and not the expanse of other violent acts committed daily, often to people who’ve done nothing to provoke and certainly nothing to deserve such action. Anyone can spread awareness among their friends and family, and should in order to ensure deaths don’t go unaddressed. Listening and talking with an open mind is always a good way to start.