News broke Wednesday afternoon that conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot in broad daylight at a Turning Point USA campus engagement event at Utah Valley University. Kirk had been addressing a crowd of listeners before a lone gunman opened fire from a nearby building, shooting him in the neck. He died from his injuries Wednesday evening.
The footage is horrifying. Every human being—no matter how strongly we may disagree with their beliefs—has the right to life. It is terrifying that on a college campus, where free speech and civil disagreement should flourish in the pursuit of the academic mission, someone could be murdered for sharing and defending their views.
In the wake of the 2026 FIRE rankings, released on Sept. 9, which assessed the free speech climate at Boston College, every single student at this university should be concerned that the same fate could very well befall a controversial speaker here. We can no longer pretend that this isn’t possible, that we would never accept such a thing, or that something like this could never happen here. The FIRE report shows us that 32 percent of BC students polled said “using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases.” How has it come to this?
How are we supposed to collectively, through discourse and disagreement, come to find truth and common ground when 58 percent of students said they have “self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month?” We don’t trust each other enough to share what we believe. What does that do to the culture of a campus with thousands of students?
And how are we supposed to learn about what we don’t understand, or articulately defend what we believe, when we shut down disagreeable speakers from the outset? Do we really accept that 68 percent of our own student body agrees that “shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases?”
Whether you hate what Charlie Kirk has to say or not, grieve this loss of human life. Pray for his young children and the family he leaves behind. Pray that this is the last victim of a culture war that claims to be the arbiter of who deserves to live or die based on their beliefs. And pray that we, the students of Boston College, take this moment to consider with urgency on how much we truly benefit our freedom of expression and the inherent dignity in each person—especially those with whom we disagree.
About the Author
