Imagine the 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son of Charlie and Erika Frantzve asking their mother, “Mom, where’s Daddy? We want to see Daddy!”
Imagine the utter devastation of their mother trying to summon up an answer to her children’s persistent question, “Where’s Daddy?”
How can she possibly convey to those little ones that their Daddy is never coming home, that he was killed by an assassin at a rally at Utah Valley University campus.
Just the mere thought of a family, their relatives and friends’ happiness ripped apart by one bullet is unbearably sad, deeply disturbing.
Charlie Kirk, 31, was a popular, dedicated conservative Republican and evangelical Christian who gave series of talks at high schools and universities. In a hideous irony, Kirk was answering a question about gun violence just moments before he was shot, killed.
The gunman, Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested in southwest Utah the day after the shooting.
Politically-motivated violence, which appears to be increasing horrifically, is a direct threat to our Democracy when fanatics try to right wrongs real or imagined by using deadly violence against political leaders. Just last June in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota House Democrat Rep. Speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their dog were shot dead in their home by a deranged assassin. He also shot and wounded Minnesota House Democrat Rep. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. The perpetrator, thankfully, was arrested.
Politically-instigated violence has plagued this country for a very long time. Four U.S. presidents were assassinated – Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy. Another, Ronald Reagan, was seriously injured by a gunman on the street. There have been scores of threats, plots and plans nipped in the bud by law enforcement before those would-be assassins could perpetrate their dirty work.
More recently, there was the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Penn. Long before that, there were two assassination attempts against President Gerald Ford – both by women, one of whom was a former member of the Charles Manson “cult family.”
In 2011, U.S. House Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, a Democrat and former Republican, was shot by a gunman outside an Arizona grocery store. She survived a severe head injury. However, six people at the scene were killed in that disgusting attack.
On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of would-be insurrectionists attacked the National Capitol and assaulted police officers, vowing to “Hang Mike Pence” in an effort to overturn the presidential election.
In 2022, a man broke into Paul Pelosi’s home, the husband of U.S. House Rep. Nancy Pelosi. The attacker bludgeoned him with a hammer, causing a skull fracture.
And let’s not forget the divisive 1960s. Besides President Kennedy, assassination victims included Black-rights activists Malcom X, Martin Luther King as well as Robert Kennedy and many voting-rights workers.
Those are just some of the violent incidents that were politically motivated in one way or another. We have to worry/wonder constantly where and when the next politically-motivated violence will explode – or the next school shooting.
We now have learned bullets found near the suspected assassin’s rifle in Utah were engraved with anti-fascist symbols and slang words from video games and online chat sites. Apparently, he was yet another rabbit-hole individual enflamed by inflammatory online hatreds.
This is one of the most polarized, angry times in American history. Is it any wonder so many disturbed people think violence is some kind of “answer?” It is not! Violence weakens our entire society and its democratic foundations.
What can we do? Increase site security for one thing. Think how many assassins used tall buildings, especially rooftops, from which to wreak their havoc: the killings of John F. Kennedy, Charlie Kirk and the attempted murder of Donald Trump, to name just three.
Other than surveillance security, we should remind ourselves – and others – every chance we get that violence is anything but an “answer” to anything. It’s an atrocious attack on our safety, our communal civility and our Democracy.
