Charlie Kirk was not storming a government building. He was not brandishing a weapon. He was not even shouting. He was on stage, mid-sentence, addressing a university audience at a speaking event. Then he was shot in the neck. And now he is dead.

No civilised society can survive a situation in which public speech becomes a life-threatening act

What occurred at Utah Valley University is not just a shooting, but an event that punctures the illusion that liberal democracies are still safe places to think aloud. However you viewed Kirk’s politics, whether you found him a bracing truth-teller or a contrary demagogue, he was, in the most basic sense, a political communicator. He built his career around public speech. He was attacked while exercising that speech on a US campus, in broad dayligh

See Full Page