In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week, voices on the left and the right have both scrambled to place blame, with varying degrees of truth to back up their claims, on the other side: It’s right-wing extremism or it’s left-wing extremism.

Close, but not quite right. The blame should always first fall on the shooter. People are not mere automatons driven by the forces of society. The shooter, not “society” or “a divided America,” ultimately pulled the trigger.

But, extremism plays a role as well, in that people are influenced by what others, especially those in positions of authority, say. It’s extremism from all sides fanning the flames.

Placing the blame first on the shooter sounds a “duh” statement, but with so many tragedies we seem to forget that premeditated murder is

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