Just as he has for well over a decade, Charlie Kirk, the right-wing firebrand political activist, was on his latest nationwide tour of college campuses to debate political issues with students. His first stop on Wednesday was Utah Valley University.
After beginning to answer a question about gun violence and mass shootings, Kirk, at just age 31, was fatally shot in the neck by a gunman from 200 yards away.
Condemnation of the assassination came from across the political spectrum, including from former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden as well as from current Republican President Donald Trump.
Political violence like this, of course, cannot be tolerated. Normalizing the routine killing of those in civic life is a path this country must not take. But what too few recognize is that political violence has already become the norm.
If political violence is to be condemned — and it should be — then all of it in all forms should be condemned. That includes the violence carried out in the halls of power, the systemized and institutional violence imposed by government policy.