The issue of gun rights has long plagued American political conversations. The death of conservative activist and speaker Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 showed the urgency of this issue. While we may see the issue of gun violence as a two-sided ordeal, bullets do not see party lines.

Kirk, 31, was shot yesterday while speaking during a university event on the Utah Valley campus, and was quickly rushed to the hospital afterward, where he died of his injuries. 

Kirk stood for many things in his life, including a strong belief in the Second Amendment- the right to bear arms. His subsequent death, caused by an act of gun violence, has, in turn, been made a statement. While many have focused on the irony of a conservative activist losing his life at the hands of the very weapons he sought to protect, news outlets and media have overlooked the more pressing issue: the death of another human life at the hands of gun violence. Kirk is not the only victim of this issue.\

On the same day that Kirk lost his life, Evergreen High School in Colorado fell victim to a shooting. The lack of coverage was disappointing, to say the least, and any coverage of it inevitably linked back to Kirk. The value placed on the lives of an upcoming generation versus the life of a person in power has become increasingly obvious. In 2025 alone, there have been over 158 school shootings, none of which garnered the same response as Kirk’s death. When violence and the loss of life only get attention based on the power and influence of their victims, we are perpetuating a country that considers certain lives more valuable than others. What matters first and foremost is that they are human.

The Declaration of Independence, on which our nation was built, said that every human being has the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and this core principle doesn’t apply to only adults. Whether they be a large political activist or a high school student from a small town in Colorado, both lives matter and don’t deserve to be lost.

Regardless of political inclination, Kirk’s death was an act of violence that resulted in the loss of human life.  By being emotionally removed from violence in America and by not acknowledging that it was a human being who lost a life, we are allowing death and violence to become the norm.  There is no world where that stands productive. 

Regardless of your stance on gun violence, no one is safe; you are not untouchable.