The Sept. 10 death of Charlie Kirk—the highest-profile U.S. political figure to be assassinated in nearly six decades—represents a tipping point for the nation, legal scholars and others told The Epoch Times. How leaders and the populace react to it could determine whether the tide of political violence continues to rise or recedes.

The 31-year-old father of two was fatally shot in the neck as he spoke on a Utah college campus. As of Sept. 11, the gunman remained unidentified and on the loose; police detained two people but released both after questioning.

Susan MacManus, a Florida political scholar for a half-century, said Kirk’s slaying could spark important changes.

“But is it going to be a catalyst for the two parties coming together and saying, ‘Enough of this’?” she asked. “Or is it just going to be a catalyst for even further deepening the polarization in this country?”

She said she worries that it could be the latter, given that “right now, the two words that are most missing in our politics are ‘civility’ and ‘compromise.’”

MacManus told The Epoch Times that she sees another contributing factor: Americans are awash in a culture of violence, ranging from images in movies and news reports to video games “where you win if you ‘kill’ people.”

When Kirk was gunned down, he was answering an attendee’s question about transgender suspects committing mass shootings. Any possible significance of that timing remains unknown, along with the gunman’s motive. In addition, Kirk had posted on social media earlier in 2025 that he was concerned about studies showing the glorification of “assassination culture” in the United States.

Many people, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, have labeled Kirk’s death a “political assassination.”

The founder of the Turning Point USA conservative organization, Kirk influenced millions of people, President Donald Trump said in an address hours after the shooting. Trump called for an end to political violence and vowed that his administration would root out “each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence.”

As a candidate in 2024, Trump himself was the target of attempted assassinations in Pennsylvania and Florida.

High-profile mass shootings at schools and the targeted assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson have also rattled the American psyche and affected political discourse.

This year, an arsonist targeted the Democratic Pennsylvania governor’s residence in April. And in June, a gunman shot two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses.

The Aug. 22 fatal stabbing of a young Ukrainian woman aboard a Charlotte, North Carolina, train, captured on video, seems to have touched off the most outrage, according to MacManus.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks alongside photos of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska and Decarlos Brown Jr. during a news briefing at the White House on Sept. 9, 2025. Zarutska was allegedly killed by Brown on a light-rail train in Charlotte, N.C. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Many other violent incidents have affected U.S. politics, directly or indirectly, in recent years.

Asked to put Kirk’s assassination into context, Jeff Bloodworth, professor of American political history at Pennsylvania’s Gannon University, told The Epoch Times that the nation has had “many, many moments of political violence,” far more than its “Western cousins.”

He called Kirk’s slaying “another sad chapter in a ‘book’ that nobody wants to read.”

Looking at the current situation, he said, “It’s telling when you have to say, ‘Well, it’s not as bad as 1968, right?’”

That was the year presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. were both assassinated. Those slayings followed the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Sen. Robert Kennedy’s brother), a Democrat.

In the decades since, violence against other notable national figures has included the 2017 shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a Republican, who survived despite serious injuries; the 1981 non-fatal shooting of President Ronald Reagan, a Republican; and a 2011 attack on Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) that left six people dead, 13 injured, and Giffords in critical condition.

Bloodworth and MacManus said many people who are only casually aware of politics had no idea who Kirk was until he was assassinated. But they also agreed that the big impact he had on U.S. politics is part of his legacy.

“He was an important figure,“ Bloodworth said. ”You might even say he was a rock star in certain circles.”

Both political scholars said they were concerned about how the Kirk assassination could affect U.S. politics.

MacManus said many would-be candidates for the 2026 midterm elections might not be willing to risk becoming targets for violence.

President John F. Kennedy (3rd R) in the White House with leaders of the “March on Washington” (L–R) Floyd McKissick, Mathew Ahmann, Whitney Young, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, and Roy Wilkins. (MPI/Getty Images)

Bloodworth said the political violence seems to be a symptom of deeper maladies in American society.

“Our politics is a barometer, and this violence is a barometer, and it’s telling us something,” he said. “I don’t think it’s telling us just how politically divided we are. I think it tells us something about kind of a deeper yearning.”

People feel “more disconnected” and sad, despite so many ways to “connect” online, he said, noting that social media is not “real life.”

Both he and MacManus said the human tragedy of Kirk’s death, which left his wife a widow and his two small children fatherless, should bridge any political divide if people step back and see it from that perspective.

MacManus said the U.S. people are looking to the nation’s leaders to set the tone.

“[People need to] see Congress coming together and big leaders from both parties saying, ‘Here are things we’re going to do and we’re not going to do,’ and stick to it,” she said. “But the problem we were running into is the old problem of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’”

On Campus

Jeremy King, 45, and his wife, Amy King, 46, live near the site where Kirk was speaking, so they decided to attend, they told The Epoch Times.

Jeremy King told The Epoch Times that he heard “what sounded like a firecracker.” He was not sure that the shooting was real until he saw Kirk fall back in his chair, he said.

The attendee said he distinctly remembers standing over his wife, trying to understand if this was a mass shooting event and if they should take cover or run. They decided to leave when Jeremy King said he realized that Kirk was being targeted and there were no additional shots coming.

“So we left [in] the same direction Charlie was taken out,” Jeremy King said. As he left, he pulled out his phone to take a video because he was convinced that the moment needed to be recorded.

“It felt very significant when they were carrying him out,” he said.

Jeremy King took some of the most widely spread video footage of Kirk’s security team rushing him into an SUV. Kirk then was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The couple has very different opinions about whether they will attend an event like this in the future.

Amy King said it was her first political event and might be her last.

She said she does not “really get into politics” but went because the event was close to home and she “was really interested in some of the things that [Kirk] said.”

Jeremy King said he came away from the event with a different opinion; he now feels that he wants to be “very involved” moving forward.

He said he would “absolutely go” to future political events.

“I think we need to do a better job of screening and [with] the security, but there’s been so many wonderful things that we can’t do anymore that we did in the ‘80s and ’90s and early 2000s and, unfortunately, I think that trend will continue,” he said.

Amy King’s voice faltered when she talked about what it will be like for Kirk’s children to grow up without him.

“Us being parents ourselves, knowing Charlie was a parent ... my heart goes out to his family,” she told The Epoch Times.

She also addressed the “shock” that the conservative commentator’s kids will go through, even when they are older, when they see references to or footage of the event.

“This will be on the news or at any time as they get older, and to grow up to see your dad pretty much gunned down on live TV, it’s just not fair,” she said.

Amy King said she sees, now more than ever, the importance of respecting “every individual.”

“If you disagree, you disagree,” she said. “But violence is not ever the solution.”

Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.

Charlie Kirk and and his wife, Erika Lane Frantzve, watch as Village People performs on stage during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel in Washington on Jan. 19, 2025. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)