Gun Violence, Mourning, and What We Refuse

Gun violence in the United States is not merely a crisis of public safety, it is a moral failure. A society reveals its values through what it tolerates, what it defends, and most tellingly, who it mourns. The recent killing of Charlie Kirk, a public figure known for his uncompromising defense of gun rights and inflammatory rhetoric, invites a reflection not only on violence, but on the selective moral economy of grief.

When Do We Get to Grieve Honestly?

Another man is dead. That should matter. And yet, I don’t feel the reflexive grief I’m told I should. I feel angry, not at the death itself, but at the performance surrounding it.

This man, like so many before him, died from gun violence. But unlike most, he spent his career defending the conditions that make such deaths possible. He wasn’t a bystander. He was an architect of the system. 

Now, in death, his name is draped in reverence. The flags are lowered. The tributes roll in. But I keep asking myself:
      When you help build the system that kills, are you surprised when it turns on you?

Logic, Consistency, and the World You Make

This is not a celebration of death. It is a confrontation with consequences.

People like Charlie Kirk have long argued that the deaths caused by gun violence are regrettable but acceptable, the 'cost of a free society'. Mass shootings? Blame mental health. Police with military-grade weapons? Necessary for law and order. Children gunned down in schools? A tragic inevitability, but not justification for restricting firearms.

This is not a one-off attitude, it’s woven into policy. Johns Hopkins research consistently shows that looser gun laws correlate with higher gun death rates, yet the deregulation continues. The justification? Freedom. Choice. A world where every death is tragic, but none are preventable.

So when someone who defended this logic becomes its next casualty, what are we supposed to feel?

Grief is a Politics, Not a Reflex

I'll be honest: the demand to mourn is not morally neutral.

Charlie Kirk built a career out of withholding grief from others. He dismissed George Floyd’s murder as overblown. He mocked the pain of immigrant families separated by ICE. He dehumanized trans people even in death. When the U.S. conducted violent ICE raids across immigrant communities (raids that destroyed families and livelihoods) I remember the silence. The silence from people who now say, “Every life is precious.”

      Where was that energy then?
      Why is his life sacred while theirs were negotiable?

Sara Ahmed’s The Cultural Politics of Emotion reminds us that emotions are social tools: they shape how bodies are read and valued. Some lives are framed as tragedies. Others are framed as problems to be solved or ignored. This isn’t just social: it’s structural. The systems that demand mourning in one case actively erase it in others.

When Guns Backfire

There’s a bitter irony in how defenders of unregulated gun ownership respond to personal tragedy. They argue for more guns, less oversight, and reject virtually every form of regulation. Gun deaths, they say, are sad but unavoidable.
Until it happens to them.
Then it’s different. Then it’s senseless. Then it’s a moment of national pause.
But this was not random. It wasn’t senseless. It was mathematically foreseeable. If you participate in the normalization of tools of death, then death is part of the world you built.

Martyrdom and Myth

I don’t think Charlie Kirk will become a martyr. At least not in the way the certain...individuals are saying. His death, while tragic, isn’t redemptive. It isn’t transformative. It’s a statistical expression of his own ideology.

If anything, his death reaffirms what many of us already knew:
      Gun violence doesn’t care who you are.
      And defending it doesn’t exempt you.

Where I Chose to Mourn

I think of the Palestinian children whose lives were erased, by military force, yes, but also by the silence that followed.
Their grief doesn’t translate. It’s too political, too distant.
Grief is not equally distributed.
Some deaths garner candlelight vigils. Others barely register.

I mourn the children shot in classrooms while adults debated bullet sizes.
I mourn the trans people whose deaths barely make headlines.
I mourn the families destroyed by ICE raids, police stops, and border crossings.
I mourn those who never even had the chance to become mournable in public.

And I mourn the fact that grief itself has become a partisan act.

If I don’t mourn this man, it’s not because I lack empathy.

Suggested Reading + Sources

[1] Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion

Explores how emotions circulate socially and "stick" to bodies, helping explain why some lives and losses are seen as “too much” while others are ignored.
[2] Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence

Argues that grief is political: some lives are publicly mourned, others are not. Introduces the concept of “grievability” as tied to structures of power and recognition.
[3] David Hemenway, Private Guns, Public Health

A foundational text in public health ethics and firearm policy, presenting statistical and ethical reasons to treat gun violence as a preventable health crisis.
[4] Deborah Azrael et al., “The Stock and Flow of U.S. Firearms,” RSF Journal

Provides empirical data on the number and movement of guns in the U.S., supporting arguments for structural reforms and tracing responsibility.
[5] “The Public Health Approach to Gun Violence Prevention” CDC Foundation

Outlines how gun violence can be addressed through evidence-based public health strategies, not just criminal or political frameworks.
[6] Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Gun Policy Studies

Presents peer-reviewed studies on firearm regulation, accessibility, and their impact on homicide and suicide rates across U.S. states.
[7] Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions

A leading center for policy-based research on gun control, offering practical and legal proposals to reduce gun deaths.
[8] ICE Raids and the Criminalization of Immigrants, American Immigration Council

Details how immigration enforcement disproportionately harms families and communities, helping contextualize why state violence often goes unmourned.

[9] Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

(Not linked, but highly recommended.) Contextualizes American gun culture within settler colonialism, white supremacy, and nationalism, offering a deep historical critique of the Second Amendment.