A student at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, was recorded approaching members of the campus Turning Point USA chapter at a tabling event and telling them he was glad Charlie Kirk was shot.
Video from the scene showed the student walking up to the table and asking, “Why shouldn’t I be glad that [Charlie Kirk] got shot? Like honestly?” The unnamed student then engaged in a back-and-forth with the TPUSA members, repeatedly defending his belief that he should be happy Kirk was killed.
“I wanna — I’m for the Second Amendment — I’m just glad Charlie Kirk got shot because he said some really stupid s***,” he said. When TPUSA members asked whether he had ever said something “stupid” himself, he replied, “yeah.” But when asked if he should be shot for those things, he responded, “No, well, because I didn’t call for — I didn’t say that gun violence is necessary.” His claim referenced Kirk’s long-standing argument that the government should not restrict the right of people to defend themselves because some abuse that right.
The student continued, “I’m just saying, I think it’s good Charlie Kirk got shot because he got what he preached. He said that violence is necessary. He said that empathy is a weakness. Why should I be empathetic to that?” His statements misrepresented Kirk’s views and referred to a past podcast episode in which Kirk said he prefers the word “sympathy” over “empathy.”
“He got shot because he called for it,” the student added. “He said bring it on. I watched the video of him getting shot in the neck and I clapped.” A TPUSA member replied, “That’s so sad,” prompting the student to answer, “I don’t think it is yet. I think bad people deserve to die.”
In a brief statement to Fox News, the university said it “does not condone violence in any form.”
