Standing in the Gap
Is violence the new ballot box? Is murder now the cost of speaking out? Americans must not let it be.
Charlie Kirk, October 14, 1993 – September 10, 2025
As I write these words, Charlie Kirk—a Christian husband with two small children and founder of Turning Point USA—has just been assassinated. Charlie was known for using logic, facts, and persuasion to challenge the closed minds of college professors and their students. That boldness probably cost him his life. I never met the man, but like many, I followed him and his organization on social media. I admired his courage, wit, and rhetorical skill.
War threatens freedom and requires the spilling of blood, but within our nation, among our own people, the cost of freedom should never be blood. Yet the anarchists, nihilists, and anti-Semites of the left often shrink from dispensing courtroom justice, demand the silence of those who disagree with them, and lash out at any who persist. Patriots must be vocal in the defense of dearly held values. If we are to have a safe and peaceful society, criminals and violence must be dealt with. If that sounds harsh, remember that Charlie Kirk was murdered. Recall Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, gunned down earlier this year at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C., Remember that Donald Trump and Representative Steve Scalise were both shot and wounded. There are countless others whose names we quickly forget. It’s not the gun. It’s the criminals and insanity behind the weapon.
Many on the left continue to brand all conservatives and Christians with labels like fascist, Nazi, racist, and bigot. Any such label spanning millions of people is false and since the murder of Charlie Kirk, there has been no rioting, burning, or destruction of communities.
With the death of Charlie, the debate about the future of America has been ripped from the university campuses and fallen to the Christians and patriots of Main Street America. Together, we must find a way to stand in the gap left by his murder.
Charlie Kirk did more in his thirty-one years than most people (including me) do in a lifetime. However, I hope all who read this will work to continue the mission he left behind. Perhaps none of us can replace him, but I will strive to stand in part of the gap—not with guns and violence, but, as he did, with his voice and vote.