By Henry Kelty
Charlie Kirk in Glendale, AZ., on July 31 2024 (Laura Segall/Getty Images)
On September 10th at Utah Valley University in Orem, Charlie Kirk, a prominent right wing activist and the driving force of Turning Point USA, was assassinated by a gunshot to the neck. As politically-motivated violence has become more common in our country, politicians on both sides of the aisle have condemned Kirk’s assassination, in an attempt to ease tensions and bring people together.
Even though there was such a universal condemnation, it wasn’t long before the usual partisan fighting began – in particular, President Donald Trump accused the “radical left” of comparing “wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis,”
Fox News host Jesse Waters said, “they are at war with us…we’re going to avenge Charlie’s death in the way he would want it avenged.”
At the same time as Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a 16-year-old shot two students at a high school in Evergreen, Colorado – before taking their own life.
Thankfully, the two children who were shot are alive and safe. In response, Colorado governor Jared Polis said in a press release, “we are all praying for the victims and the entire community,” while senator Michael Bennet said, “I will continue to monitor the situation closely and think of Evergreen’s teachers and students in the wake of this senseless violence.”
Now think about this in comparison to the responses to Kirk’s assassination – for Evergreen, there’s no widespread condemnation, no partisan rhetoric, just the same standard framework of “thoughts and prayers” that we’ve heard over and over again.
“Thoughts and prayers” does acknowledge the tragedy and it sounds nice on the evening news, but it’s become the go-to, apolitical line to say after a mass shooting. Since the line has become so overused, its effectiveness and meaning is lost, and making a public statement doesn’t do anything to ease the fears of the people, who look on in slack-jawed horror when another shooting takes place. Real, concrete change to our gun laws just doesn’t happen through “thoughts and prayers” – it happens through actual work to implement gun control.
This response is even more futile when we compare American gun regulations to similar countries. The numbers don’t lie – Center for Gun Violence Solutions data from 2023 shows that 17,927 American homicide victims were killed by a gun, and the same data also shows that 79% of homicides that year involved a gun. In contrast, data that same year from Statistics Canada shows that only 289 Canadian homicide victims were killed by a gun, and 38% of Canadian homicides that year involved a gun.
Let’s compare – when compared to the Canadians in 2023 alone, American victims of homicide were 62 times more likely to be killed by a gun, and any homicide in the United States was two times more likely to have a gun involved. Canada has more restrictions on guns than we do, so if a shooting took place in Edmonton tomorrow, the prime minister would at least have some leeway to use the “thoughts and prayers” line – in this case, there’s actual policy behind it.
The same just can’t be said for American politicians, and until we have serious and effective gun control in this country, saying “thoughts and prayers” over and over again won’t do anything to solve the epidemic of gun violence. It lets it fester, while it violently manifests itself in the form of Charlie Kirk’s assassination or the Evergreen High School shooting, all the while our lawmakers entrench themselves into yet another episode of partisan trench warfare.