To Republicans: Now that Charlie Kirk’s Voice Has Been Silenced, How About Passing Gun Safety Laws?

Republicans have opposed gun safety laws for the last 40 years. After the hideous assassination of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, it’s long past time for MAGA politicians to support gun control laws.

Ironically, Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings at the moment he was murdered in front of a crowd of 3,000 people on September 10, 2025.

If you dare, watch the Kirk assassination video below. The video is an example of what Republicans don’t want to stop.

Kirk: “Gun deaths are worth it.”

Notoriously, Charlie Kirk said in April 2023, at a TPUSA Faith event in Salt Lake City:

“You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death … But … I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” Newsweek

Over the last 40 years (1985-2025), there were 325,000 to 350,000 gun deaths in the U.S., according to analyses using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

But MAGAs and the NRA like to change the subject by saying, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” They claim duplicitously that calls for gun safety laws after mass murders and assassinations are “politicizing” a tragedy.

Meanwhile, Republicans are sending their meaningless “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of the assassination. You’d think that MAGAs would have learned something after the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.

Killed by a legal firearm

The Utah shooter killed Kirk with a high-powered, bolt-action rifle, which is generally legal in the U.S. America needs a stronger federal law than the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expands background checks, establishes red flag laws, closes the “boyfriend loophole” for domestic abusers, and fights gun trafficking.

“In states where elected officials have taken action to pass gun safety laws, fewer people die by gun violence,” according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University. Utah has weak gun laws, and Utah ranks #36 out of 50 among states ranked on the strength of their gun laws, compared to its rate of gun violence.

Gun safety laws do reduce gun violence. See Everytown’s chart proving this.

U.S. political leaders attacked with guns.

U.S. presidents attacked in assassination attempts in the last 40 years include Ronald Reagan (1981), Trump (2024), Barack Obama (2011), George W. Bush (2005), and George H.W. Bush (1993), and Gerald Ford (two assassination attempts in 1975), according to Politico.

And we cannot forget the assassinations of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. They were all murdered with guns.

Lincoln was assassinated 160 years ago. Yet in all that time, Congress has failed to pass a meaningful gun safety law. Democrat Bill Clinton signed the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban into law, but the Republican-dominated Congress let it expire in 2004.

A gun silences Kirk’s voice.

Charlie Kirk has made numerous false, repellent, and misleading statements.

In April 2023, at a TPUSA Faith event in Salt Lake City, Charlie Kirk said:

“You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death … But … I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” Newsweek

Critics have pointed out that this kind of comparison is callous, especially to people who have lost loved ones. It can also be misleading because it overlooks alternative policies that could preserve rights while minimizing harms.

Kirk also compared gun deaths to fatalities resulting from automobile accidents. However, in recent years, gun-related deaths have exceeded deaths from traffic accidents for certain age groups (notably children and teens). So the comparison is not an accurate parallel. Newsweek+2Teen Vogue+2

Kirk falsely contended that gun control efforts are futile. Kirk said, “You will never live in a society … with an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death.”  For children and teenagers in the U.S. (ages 1–19), firearms have been the leading cause of death since 2020, overtaking traffic deaths. So to argue that gun deaths are comparable to auto deaths is disinformation. Newsweek

Will Republicans agree with Charlie Kirk that a few gun deaths, including his, are “worth it”? Or will they pass laws to prevent gun deaths committed with easily accessible murder weapons?