There's a Reason Free Speech Discussion Key Part of Kirk Assassination Aftermath

There are images I'll likely never purge from my memory, possibly even if I suffer from Alzheimer's. The space shuttle Challenger exploding in the air, the sights and horrors of 9/11, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

No, the latter might not have been on the world-shattering scale as the other two were, but it deeply affected me as a person. Seeing the video of him being shot was something that I couldn't turn my eyes away from, even as I felt the horror within. Seeing a man with no overt political power, who engaged in debate with his ideological opponents, murdered because he had opinions that someone else didn't like, is incredibly troubling.

But, unsurprisingly, a lot of people want to make this about guns, rather than the inane way people view opinions they disagree with. A free speech debate has raged since the assassination, and people like this New York Daily News op-ed writer think we should really be discussing gun control instead.

In the weeks since Charlie Kirk was mercilessly assassinated right in front of our very eyes, much of the focus has been on free speech, and who got punished for saying what.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel was briefly taken off the air for a controversial monologue, only to rebound with spectacular ratings when he returned a few days later.

Across the country, according to The New York Times, nearly 150 people were fired or canceled for remarks, conversations or social media posts that upset the sensibilities of Kirk’s grieving faithful followers.

But one subject that’s getting nearly no attention is the issue that could be the most relevant to Kirk’s murder — guns.

It’s like we’ve been so caught up with debating the First Amendment, we’ve forgotten about the Second.

Kirk was shot. And killed. With a gun.

He was shot and killed with a gun in a nation where guns outnumber people almost 3-1.

And, as if the gun manufacturers weren’t producing enough weapons of destruction, amateurs are using 3D printers to make them in their basements.

Kirk was killed with a gun that literally every gun control advocate of any note routinely tells us no one wants to restrict. It was a bolt-action rifle, the kind millions take into the woods every hunting season. It was a caliber that is in a lot of tree stands and is useful for taking down any large game animal in North America, but it isn't on America's battlefields anymore.

It is, in short, the very gun that has been omitted from the gun debate.

The writer, Leonard Greene, then brings up the Dallas ICE shooting, which also used a bolt-action rifle. He brings up the Evergreen school shooting in Colorado, which used a revolver, another gun that we're told no one wants to restrict any further than what is already on the books for handguns in general.

We've been talking about free speech because Greene's side has claimed they don't want to restrict these guns for decades, so we're talking about something else that played a role in a particularly troubling series of brutal murders.

I'm not going to sit here and let Greene try and deflect from the reality that the demonization of people who speak opinions they don't like can lead many to take that demonization seriously. I've had numerous people tell me that talking critically about trans issues in any way besides adoration is trying to erase them or threatens their life, even without anyone stating any such desire.

Saying people who say things like that should be shot was tolerated, and now it's not.

We're talking about speech because Charlie Kirk was murdered because he used his free speech in a way that some people didn't like, and others are celebrating it.

I'm not going to let anyone deflect away from that fact.

So no, Mr. Greene, the issue isn't guns. These guns were firearms that people like you claimed you wouldn't touch. We never believed you, of course, but you guys said it, and we're holding you to it. So instead, we're talking about why Charlie Kirk was murdered by someone who didn't like what he had to say.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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