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By Max Frost
When we wrote our initial report on Charlie Kirk’s killing, we intentionally didn’t discuss his views because we believe they’re irrelevant. If someone is assassinated and the response is to dissect their views, it implies the views were responsible for the violence – which attacks the principle of free speech.
In the days since, though, we’ve seen one Instagram story after another labeling Kirk a misogynist, a racist, and a homophobe; saying that he has called for stoning gays, a return to slavery, and gun deaths. We wanted to know: Did he actually say these things?
So we investigated. Today, we share the most viral Kirk quotes and provide the full context in which they were said.
We’ve seen no quote shared more than this:
I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.
He said this on April 5, 2023, at an event organized by TPUSA Faith, the religious arm of Kirk’s conservative group Turning Point USA. Here’s the full context (excerpt in bold below):
Audience Member:
How's it going, Charlie? I'm Austin. I just had a question related to Second Amendment rights. We saw the shooting that happened recently, and a lot of people are upset. But, I'm seeing people argue for the other side that they want to take our Second Amendment rights away. How do we convince them that it's important to have the right to defend ourselves and all that good stuff?
Charlie Kirk:
Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you. So, I'm a big Second Amendment fan, but I think most politicians are cowards when it comes to defending why we have a Second Amendment. This is why I would not be a good politician, or maybe I would, I don't know, because I actually speak my mind.
The Second Amendment is not about hunting. I love hunting. The Second Amendment is not even about personal defense. That is important. The Second Amendment is there, God forbid, so that you can defend yourself against a tyrannical government. And if that talk scares you — "wow, that's radical, Charlie, I don't know about that" — well then, you have not really read any of the literature of our Founding Fathers. Number two, you've not read any 20th-century history. You're just living in Narnia. By the way, if you're actually living in Narnia, you would be wiser than wherever you're living, because C.S. Lewis was really smart. So I don't know what alternative universe you're living in. You just don't want to face reality that governments tend to get tyrannical and that if people need an ability to protect themselves and their communities and their families.
Now, we must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty. Driving comes with a price. 50,000, 50,000, 50,000 people die on the road every year. That's a price. You get rid of driving, you'd have 50,000 less auto fatalities. But we have decided that the benefit of driving — speed, accessibility, mobility, having products, services — is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road. So we need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. You could significantly reduce them through having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools. We should have a honest and clear reductionist view of gun violence, but we should not have a utopian one.
You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am, I, I – I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.
“If I see a black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.”
In the rest of this story, we look at the full context around Kirk’s quotes criticizing the Civil Rights Movement and MLK, allegedly calling for “stoning gays,” and more.
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Editor’s Note
We could go on, but these were the quotes we saw most widely shared online. Now you have the context. So make up your mind. We won’t tell you what to think, beyond this: Whether you agree or not, he didn’t deserve to die. As always, please share your thoughts.
And in case you missed them, find this past week’s stories below:
That’s all for today. See you tomorrow.
—Max and Max
