US needs to realise it is on a violent brink

On Wednesday last, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, led his fellow members in a moment of silence following the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk earlier that afternoon.

“We ask everyone to pray for him and his family,” pleaded the third-in-line to the US President: “Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are.” 

Charlie Kirk, an outspoken, influencer and organiser, was shot as he was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University by an unknown assassin - who remains at large at the time of writing, which is 30 hours after the killing. He was just 31 years old and one of the most high-profile and controversial figures in American conservative politics. A trusted ally of Donald Trump, he co-founded Turning Point USA at 18 and built it into a powerful youth movement with chapters on hundreds of college campuses, credited with mobilising voters and even helping Trump win the state of Arizona.

A charismatic speaker and prolific broadcaster with millions of followers, he thrived on debating students about hot-button issues from gun rights to climate change, often drawing fierce criticism from liberals who saw him as provocative and divisive. To his supporters, he was the voice of a new conservative generation, blending faith, family values and populist zeal into a potent force on the American right.

All shades of American opinion have joined in rare unison to condemn this shocking murder, even as it comes against the backdrop of a grim new pattern of political figures in the United Sates being violently attacked for who they are and what they represent.

A research team at the University of Maryland has tracked US political violence since 1970 and found that from January to June of this year there were around 150 politically-motivated attacks, nearly twice as many as over the same period in 2024. Reuters reports that the period of Joe Biden’s presidency saw 300 cases of political violence in “the most significant and sustained surge in such violence since the 1970s”.

While the incident at Utah University was unfolding, a 16-year-old student opened fire at Evergreen High School in Colorado, shooting two classmates before killing himself. This tragedy faded into the noise around Kirk’s murder as ubiquitous gun violence provides a dangerously acceptable de facto backdrop, against which increasing political violence is occurring.

A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Medicine found that US homicide rates were seven times more than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher. The researchers said that America “has an enormous firearm problem compared with other high-income countries, with higher rates of homicide and firearm-related suicide”. 

More recently, Pew Research Center reports that in 2023, almost 47,000 people died of gun-related injuries, with a homicide rate in the United Sates at approximately 5.6 per 100,000 people, one of the highest among wealthy nations. This occurred as annual gun deaths declined for the second consecutive year, while still among the highest on record. Yet, despite this overwhelming evidence, there is a societal denial of reality.

Just three months ago, America was already shaken by another act of targeted political violence. On June 14, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman, a Democrat and former speaker of the state House, was gunned down alongside her husband, Mark, at their home by a man posing as a police officer. That same night, state senator John Hoffman, also a Democrat and his wife, Yvette, were shot multiple times though they survived after emergency surgery. The FBI described the shootings as “targeted political violence”. The killer had attended school at the Christ For The Nations Institute (CFNI)m  who issued a statement, horrified at what their former student had done, declaring “ this is not who we are”.

Lest we forget, on July 13, 2024, Donald Trump himself survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire from a rooftop overlooking the crowd. Trump was rushed him off stage by Secret Service agents, while a spectator was killed and others injured. The dramatic images of a bloodied but defiant Trump, raising his fist as he was led away, became an instant symbol for his supporters and added to the already charged atmosphere of political violence. Joe Biden condemned the attempted assassination of his opponent as contrary to everything America stood for. 

“ It’s not who we are as a nation," he declared.

Yet, this phrase is becoming meaningless through repetition. Senator Lindsey Graham stated on The View television programme that a shooting at a Charleston church on June 17, 2015, leaving seven dead, was not about some societal issue with South Carolina, reiterating: " It's not who we are…”

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf expressed condolences on October 27, 2018, for the lives lost in the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, noting: “ This is not who we are."

Following a fatal school shooting on May 7, 2019, at STEM School Highlands Ranch, just miles from Columbine High School, District Attorney George Brauchler stated: " This is not who we are." Following a fatal shooting after a 'No Kings' protest attended by 10,000 people on June 14 last, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall called the violence “horrific, and it is not who we are.”‬ In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder, Democrat Senator Tim Kaine, who was once Hillary Clinton’s running mate, while speaking at two Senate Committee hearings about political violence did admit: “It's getting harder to say this is not who we are."

I believe that to even begin a process of societal healing we must take collective responsibility for our actions, behaviours, choices and their consequences, rather than playing the victim card, blaming external factor or scapegoating 'other' people and groups. For America to pull back from a violent brink, it first needs to own up to how close to the brink it is at. Because, as painful and as devasting as it is to admit it Senator Kaine, but right now, this is who we are.